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A new era for French fashion house Chanel is on the horizon with the appointment of Matthieu Blazy as its new Creative Director.
The now-former Creative Director of Bottega Veneta takes on the highly coveted role in the fashion space following Virginie Viard’s departure from the Maison six months ago.
According to reports, Blazy, 40, is set to officially join Chanel in April and will present his first collection for the house in October at Paris Fashion Week SS26.
While it’s been a long road to find the new creative head for Chanel, it’s an appointment that the Maison’s president Bruno Pavlovsky aims to have for the long haul.
“We hope to be together for 10, 15 years or more,” he told WWD of Blazy’s appointment. “We’re just at the start of our story.
“Together we’ll be able to write a new chapter for the brand.”
The announcement comes after Viard’s exit from Chanel in June of this year, following a five-year tenure at the helm as creative director. Viard succeeded the role from Karl Lagerfeld, following his death in February 2019. Lagerfeld had been Chanel’s creative director for 36 years from 1983 to 2019 before his passing.
Of his new role, Blazy said he was excited for a “new chapter” in the revered history of the house of Chanel.
“I am thrilled and honoured to join the wonderful house of Chanel. I look forward to meeting all the teams and writing this new chapter together,” the designer said in a statement.
The French-Belgian fashion designer had been creative director of Bottega Veneta since 2021, bringing the Italian house very much to the forefront of the fashion zeitgeist.
Following Blazy’s departure from Bottega Veneta, it was announced Louise Trotter would take on the role of creative director.
Trotter had most recently been the creative director of French brand Carven and prior to that, she was the creative director of Lacoste from 2018 to 2023.
