Virginie Viard - Designer, Creative Director of Chanel

[caioherrero]

Emmanuelle Walle, no?


WWD.COM/

Who is she?

 

[vogue28]

I'd be immensely elated to hear the news of Emmanuelle Alt joining Chanel - in any capacity! There's zero denying the fact Alt would be the perfect fit for Chanel, wears and embodies the brand effortlessly and Alt's campaigns with Karl Lagerfeld were utterly fabulous.

 

[velvetandsilk]

Chanel President Says It’s Not Placing New Quotas on Bags, May Make Metaverse Move

December 7, 2021 - By TFL



Chanel’s president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky is setting the record straight on recurring reports that the famed fashion house is implementing quotas on some of its bags, stating in an interview that Chanel has “not put new limitations on selling in any country.” Instead, Mr. Pavlovsky asserts, “We just had a big successful year, especially in Korea, and we don’t have enough products – especially for handbags.” That successful year – or better yet, two years – and the resulting “shortages” come as Chanel has doubled-down in its “loyal customers,” he told Fashion Network, and has “enjoyed double digit growth in each country with local customers, even if tourism is up and down” as a result.


Pavlovsky’s comments follow from reports first published by Korean media this fall that Chanel was implementing a restriction on sales, namely by placing a strict limit on the number of bags that consumers in certain markets can buy over a one-year period, potentially in an attempt to put a stop to widespread resale activities outside of Chanel’s carefully-controlled authorized retail channels. The Korea Times reported that on the heels of raising prices in February, July and September of this year, Chanel adopted a new policy in Korea in which “each customer can buy one Timeless Classic flap bag and one Coco Handle bag per year,” and had also put quotas in place for small leather goods, including wallets and pouches, assuming that “a customer wants more than one of the same model in the category.”


The move appeared to mirror an existing policy that is in place for brands like Hermès, which has notoriously limited the quantities that consumers can purchase of certain “quota” bags, namely, Birkin and Kelly bags, to two bags per calendar year in furtherance of a “very limited distribution strategy,” as well as for Rolex, which has similarly been “restricting per-capita purchases,” in the Korean market, at least, in light of raging demand and limited supply.


As for Chanel’s widely-reported-on price hikes, the most recent of which went into effect in November and which sent the price tags of its Classic Flap and 2.55 bags up as much as 15.5 percent, Chanel has consistently pointed to rising costs of raw materials and the desire to “avoid excessive price differentials between countries, in line with our commitments regarding price harmonization,” something that it has been working on for several years.


Back in April 2015, Pavlovsky spoke to the brand’s decision to begin harmonizing its pricing (something that many brands were not doing at the time), stating that it was aiming to ensure that prices do not fluctuate more than 10 percent above or below its global euro benchmark as part of an effort “to ensure the relationship we want to build with our customers.” Specifically, the Chanel executive said that by way of the pricing decision, Chanel was aiming to ensure that consumers are drawn in “by the brand and by the products and not just led by the price differentials” that routinely occur in different parts of the world due to currency fluctuations. (Price harmonization is also used as a tool to eradicate parallel imports, i.e., authentic goods that are obtained from one market (i.e., a country or economic area), and imported into another market and sold there without the consent of the trademark owner in order to benefit from price differentials.)


“It’s to prepare the brand for the next 10 to 15 years,” Pavlovsky said of the implementation of price harmonizing tactics at the time. “It’s more about the future than the past.”


And speaking of the future, in his interview this week, Pavlovsky says that in looking ahead to 2022, Chanel has “to be optimistic but also realistic, as we are facing challenging situations,” further stating that “2022 can be good from a business point of view but very difficult from a day-to-day point of view as you are dependent on sanitary conditions. It is a great unknown.”


One thing that does seem a bit clearer is the brand’s budding interest in a potential move into the metaverse at some point. Asked about the company’s adoption of various new technologies, Pavlovsky said Chanel was looking both at NFTs and at the metaverse: “Three years ago, everyone spoke of blockchain, and now we are using it throughout our entire manufacturing process. The day we are ready we will come with our own contribution to the metaverse.” It is not unreasonable to expect that Chanel will at some point roll out a proprietary metaverse venture in which it will maintain control over all aspects given the meticulousness with which it endeavors to handle all elements of the manufacturing and distribution chain for its products, including in a secondary market capacity.
www.thefashionlaw.com

 

[LostInNJ]

someone who’s going to help A LOT

Seriously tho, who is it?

 

[dfl-001]

Chanel Picks Luxury Industry Outsider Leena Nair as Its Next CEO
She comes to the French fashion house after leading human resources at Unilever

By Trefor Moss at [email protected]
Dec. 14, 2021

LONDON—French luxury group Chanel SA poached consumer-goods executive Leena Nair to become its chief executive early next year, reaching outside the fashion industry for leadership as it strives to recover from the industry’s pandemic slump.

Ms. Nair most recently headed up human resources at consumer-goods and packaged-food giant Unilever PLC. Alain Wertheimer, who owns privately held Chanel with his brother Gerard, will move from the CEO role to executive chairman, Chanel said in a statement.

It’s relatively rare for luxury companies to hire executives from outside the industry, which has traditionally favored insiders or—in the case of the many family-run fashion houses—scions of the founders. One notable exception with parallels to Ms. Nair’s move: Estee Lauder Cos. tapped Fabrizio Freda, a snack-food executive at Procter & Gamble Co. , to become its chief executive in 2009.

In swapping fast-moving consumer goods for luxury, Ms. Nair joins a sector that analysts say is poised for rapid post-pandemic growth. Bain & Co. forecasts that global luxury revenues will rise from an estimated €283 billion, equivalent to $320 billion, this year to around €370 billion, or $418 billion, in 2025.

Chanel, whose lines include fashion, fragrances, jewelry and skin care, was the world’s sixth largest luxury group by revenue in 2020, according to Deloitte, with sales of $10.1 billion. Like other big luxury groups, Chanel’s sales took a hit from the pandemic, declining 17.6% in 2020 relative to the year before. That compared with an 11% decline for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and a 17.5% decline at Kering SA .

A newcomer to the luxury business, Ms. Nair will be based in London, where Chanel has had its global headquarters since 2018. She previously spent three decades at Unilever, most recently as the Anglo-Dutch company’s chief human resources officer, and is also a nonexecutive board member of British telecoms giant BT Group PLC.

source:www.wsj.com

 

[SophiaVB]

So random they picked HR at a CPG... AND British.

 

[fashionista-ta]

HR at Unilever?!?! Wow. I think that makes me overqualified for any move I might be contemplating

 

[Salvatore]

What.

 

[dodencebt]

Wow this should give everyone the courage to apply for their dream position even if they feel they're not qualified enough.

 

[KoV]

I think it’s a savvy move, a great choice, and she is likely not at all unqualified. There’s a relatively small pool of people with experience scaling up major luxury brands, it makes sense to nab someone from an adjacent industry. Obviously Unilever doesn’t sound as prestigious as Chanel, but while there as head of HR she would’ve overseen 7x the number of employees she will at Chanel and held various positions over 30 years at a company with 5x the revenue of Chanel. She was also on the board of a telecom company and was the a director of the business, energy and industrial strategy department of the British Government. Unqualified? Please. She started at the bottom at Unilever and actually worked her way to the top, she wasn’t handed success and enviable position because of Nepotism or connections, like so many in her new industry. I read that she made significant progress with gender parity at Unilever and was an advocate for a living wage for all Unilever employees. Chanel having a WOC at the head looks good, but I also think she has experience that indicates not only a head for business but also that she would be a compassionate leader.

 

[helmutnotdead]

Seriously tho, who is it?

Emmanuelle Alt.

 

[vogue28]

Emmanuelle Alt.

I will personally ban you from this forum if this turns out to be untrue.

What wonderful news, cannot wait for the official announcement to drop and I wonder if Alt's had any involvement with the S/S 2022 campaign? Alt is without a doubt a perfect fit for Chanel, and obviously works wonderful alongside Viard faves Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

 

[Caffeine]

HR at Unilever?!?! Wow. I think that makes me overqualified for any move I might be contemplating

I know. Mind boggling.

 

[Lola701]

It’s a good and interesting decision. Maureen Chiquet came from Banana Republic and nobody can’t say that Chanel under her tenure wasn’t a strong and flourishing brand. And so far all their CEO, have always done a great job at expanding the brand.

Leena’s challenges are a bit different and the expansion on emerging markets will be the next challenge in the next few years.

That being said, she is not really helped with Virginie at the helm but that’s another topic.

So random they picked HR at a CPG... AND British.

They never had a French CEO. They all have been American from D’Alessio to Chiquet.

 

[Frederic01]

An article from BOF about the recent price increase:

Chanel Is Aiming for Hermès Status With Handbag Price Hikes
The luxury fashion brand has raised prices, and set purchasing limits in an effort to become a more exclusive and desirable brand.

By BLOOMBERG / 21 December 2021

Chanel has raised global prices on some of its classic handbags by almost two-thirds since the end of 2019.

A spokeswoman said the hikes are in response to unspecified exchange-rate fluctuations, changes in production costs and to ensure its handbags cost roughly the same around the world. But luxury-sector executives and analysts say the magnitude of the increases signals an aggressive corporate strategy: asserting control over one of the brand’s most popular products while taking aim at higher-end rivals.

Since November 2019, the price of Chanel’s small classic flap bag in the US has gone up by 60 percent to $8,200, according to data compiled by Jefferies Group analyst Kathryn Parker. The large version of the handbag known as the 2.55 now costs $9,500 in the US following Chanel’s latest price hike, the brand’s fourth in two years. It cost $7,400 in June, according to Parker.

Charles Gorra, chief executive officer of Rebag, which sells pre-owned luxury purses, says the push could be aimed at making Chanel’s products more exclusive, to gain ground on the most iconic handbags of all: the Birkin and Kelly bags by rival luxury house Hermès.

A medium-sized Chanel flag bag in France now costs €7,800 ($8,800), €100 less than a Birkin 30 in Togo calfskin by Hermès.

Chanel is striving “to be part of the Hermès world and less of the Vuitton and Gucci world,” Gorra said. “They are trying to go upscale.”

Ubiquity Versus Exclusivity

In addition to making its products more expensive, Chanel is cracking down on the number of handbags customers can purchase at one time, though the limits don’t appear to be consistent.

In Paris, a Chanel sales assistant told a Bloomberg News reporter that a customer is only allowed to buy one bag at a time, and must wait two months before buying another one, which can’t have the same features. In New York, there were monthly limits on the purchases of certain classic styles, while reporters in Hong Kong and Shanghai were told there were no restrictions.

Chanel could be hoping that this scarcity will make it “an even more desirable brand,” said Ines Ennaji, a business development manager at Paris-based Luxurynsight, which provides industry data. “By increasing desirability, they’ll have a reason to justify their price increases.”

Chanel’s purchasing limits and price increases are “like telling consumers, if you can purchase a handbag, you belong to the club,” Gachoucha Kretz, associate marketing professor at business school HEC Paris, said. “Its iconic bags are best sellers.”

But there are initial signs that Chanel’s changes are irking some shoppers, while enticing others to buy now to avoid future hikes.

“I have become rather discontented with the brand,” said Ingrid Chua, a Vogue Hong Kong contributor whose Bag Hag Instagram account has almost 60,000 followers. She said the leather on Chanel’s bags has a more plastic feel in recent years because of a heavier coating intended to protect against dirt and scratches.

The price hikes make Carol Gong, who frequently buys luxury products in Hong Kong, less likely to buy Chanel. “If I can get one, I’d rather buy a Lindy bag from Hermès, which is offered at a similar price,” she said.

Erwan Rambourg, HSBC’s global head of consumer and retail research, thinks Chanel’s price increases are about branding rather than competition.

“It’s in reference to what they believe is their brand equity — and also how nervous they are about this ubiquity,” Rambourg said. He added that the company doesn’t “want everyone to carry the same handbag, because that devalues the handbag itself.”

Yet there are cautionary tales from the high-end sector about the impact of successive price increases, Rambourg notes. Several years ago, IWC Schaffhausen, which is owned by Swiss luxury conglomerate Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, significantly boosted the cost of its watches. Consumers pulled back, forcing IWC to cut prices and launch a more accessible steel version of one of its watches, he said.

Missing Out

Across the fashion world, Chanel is one of the few digital holdouts, with a long-standing policy against selling any handbags or clothes online, though it does sell cosmetics and sunglasses on its website.

When online demand for luxury handbags surged during the pandemic, Chanel missed out on the robust revenue growth that buoyed peers such as Hermès and LVMH’s fashion and leather-goods unit, which includes Louis Vuitton and Dior.

The privately held Chanel, controlled by the billionaire Wertheimer brothers, reported an 18 percent decline in revenue and a 41 percent slump in operating profit in 2020, compared with a 6 percent revenue drop and 15 percent operating profit decline for Hermès. Earlier this month, Chanel appointed Leena Nair, a Unilever Plc executive, as chief executive officer starting in January.

Parker, the Jefferies analyst, said that Chanel is trying to find ways to compensate for that revenue drop. “Part of where they could close the gap to other brands that had e-commerce is on pricing.”

Secondary Market

One consequence of Chanel’s price increases has been to boost the cost of its handbags on the secondary market, said Seth Weisser, chief executive of New York-based luxury reseller What Goes Around Comes Around. Chanel has sued the company for false advertising and trademark infringement, allegations the resale platform denies. Chanel declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Weisser said he’s able to sell Chanel bags that are ten years old or older for more than their original price, in part because many of the styles are discontinued. “Not all Chanel bags are created equal,” he said. Demand depends on the colour, model and size. Of the purses that Chanel has made within the past several years, about half of them sell below the primary-market price, Weisser said.

By contrast, resellers can count on Hermès’s most-sought after bags to consistently sell for more than their original price. A rare Birkin sold for €112,000 ($126,550) on resale platform Vestiaire Collective last month; its retail price was €18,500. The most expensive Chanel bags have sold for as much as €30,000, a spokesman for the platform said.

The most expensive bag ever auctioned was a crocodile Kelly bag from Hermès that Christie’s sold last month for 4 million Hong Kong dollars ($512,880). The most expensive Chanel bag at the same auction sold for 125,000 Hong Kong dollars.

“Chanel is probably keen to bring the 2.55 and Timeless models on a par with the Birkin and the Kelly of Hermès,” said Bertrand Peyrat, chief supply officer at Vestiaire Collective, referring to the flap bag. “But the secondary market evaluation for Chanel is not there yet.”

By Angelina Rascouet, Jeannette Neumann

businessoffashion.com/articles/luxury/chanel-is-aiming-for-hermes-status-with-handbag-price-hikes/

 

[susseinmcswanny]

Maybe if Chanel wants to start using higher quality materials and hand stitch everything from start to finish. Otherwise get a grip. Thas mento illness luv x. Plus, more and more people are starting to realize birkins are just beanie babies for rich people. It's a bag. Not an investment. That bubble is going to f*cking explode sooner or later

 

[dior_couture1245]

Chanel bags just aren’t sophisticated enough to cost as much as Hermès. They’re too girly and cute and young, in my opinion.

Hermès bags are some of the most timeless and chic bags on the market.

 

[Lola701]

I must say that I never bought the « Trying to compete against Hermès » because in terms of Price point overall, Chanel has always been more expensive than all the brands of the HF circuit and let’s be honest, if they really wanted to compete, they would have never stopped doing exotic skin because that’s really where the prices go in insane places for Hermès.

But Chanel’s problem has always been exclusivity. In a way they are victim of their success and particularly of the success of the Classique. The 2.55 is a little bit more restrained and doesn’t scream Chanel despite being the original Chanel. They sells a lot of those bags, the bags sells a lot on the resell market.

The bags don’t have the same status so their availability on the market is drastically different. The Birkin and the Kelly prior to the early 00’s were really the bags of the rich old grandmas or bourgeoises. Hermes has always had that image somehow. It was a status symbol only for those on the know but it has never been trendy.
Chanel on the other hand is a fashion brand so even if the bags were status symbol they also told a lot about taste in fashion. And of course in the 80’s and 90’s, buying a Chanel bag was for a woman her first major display of social elevation.

Since SATC, Kelly and Birkin have been enjoying cultural relevancy. So it changes the paradigm…
It’s a fashion item now that screams I have money. Hermès has other bags but nobody cares about them. I prefer a Paris Bombay to a Birkin but apparently the majority didn’t so it was discontinued. They keep the Bolide because some people are snobbish enough to buy them because it’s Hermès instead of buying the Alma from Vuitton…


Personally, I prefer Chanel classic bags because they are practical and works for my lifestyle. I love a Victoria from Hermès because you can live with it…But I find the prices outrageous for Chanel and I find that obsession about investment, resell and stuff annoying.
The problem of the whole thing is the consumers! I cringe when I hear someone talk about a bag as an investment. It’s ridiculous!

There are so many brands out there doing great bags with good quality and good craftsmanship. From Alaia to Moynat, there are fabulous bags everywhere.

And let’s be honest, people will continue to shop. Unfortunately they won’t shop in a clever way and will continue to complain.
Because buying a bag with the end of goal of selling it is ridiculous.

 

[Lola701]

Maybe if Chanel wants to start using higher quality materials and hand stitch everything from start to finish. Otherwise get a grip. Thas mento illness luv x. Plus, more and more people are starting to realize birkins are just beanie babies for rich people. It's a bag. Not an investment. That bubble is going to f*cking explode sooner or later

What they needs to do is have a centralized production because the problem is the inconsistency. I bought all my classic Chanel before 2010 and this past decade, I only bought seasonal bags but Chanel does produce more of their flagship bags than Hermès. So, it’s ridiculous for them to use subcontractors (who have shady practices) in Italy instead of having all their bags made in their own factories (like all their made in France bags).

But at the same time, Hermès is luxury goods with leather goods as an heritage whereas Chanel is fashion. It changes something in terms of philosophy…

And it’s maybe also time for people to have an open eye on Chanel bags (not being stuck on the classics that cost arms) and/or reconsider their priorities.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

So, it’s ridiculous for them to use subcontractors (who have shady practices) in Italy instead of having all their bags made in their own factories (like all their made in France bags)

That really is a huge blow to Chanel's integrity and reputation. And that's a thing in general I really dislike and will never understand; why heritage houses outsource to other countries, regardless of the slave labor, because like... if you claim to be a French house, create in France! Chanel Paris, Saint Laurent Paris, Balenciaga Paris, Maison Margiela Paris. What are you doing? I know Chanel is still mostly made in France, but they're slipping. They're getting caught up with their status as a business with making money and perceived growth.

^^ Which is also causing them to feed on the investment resale market crap. I really do understand buying that special item that everyone thinks is so cool that you love and value so much. But buy it because you like it for yourself... When everything goes to sh*t, who tf are you gonna sell all your "100k" handbags to...?