Virginie Viard, Creative Director at Chanel, to leave the brand. The news comes as no surprise.

The news of the exit of Chanel's Creative Director was confirmed on the night of 5 to 6 June by Business of Fashion. By a strange coincidence, Chanel's website was temporarily ‘’down for maintenance‘’ this morning. Digital silence, then, even though the fashion world was buzzing with the rumour, which was recently denied by Chanel. Not surprisingly, this announcement comes a month after the cruise show held on the roof of the Cité Radieuse in Marseille. The show drew an avalanche of criticism on social networks, highlighting the fashion house's lack of creative renewal. "A new creative organisation will be announced in due course. Chanel would like to thank Virginie Viard for her remarkable contribution to fashion, creativity and the vitality of Chanel,’ explains the house.

Virginie Viard began working at the same time as Karl Lagerfeld at the Rue Cambon fashion house, in 1987. The designer worked more closely with Kaiser Karl from 2017, before succeeding him in 2019, shortly after his death. ‘[...]It was a position that no one in the Decorative Arts would have wished for [...]’ pointed out journalist Suzy Menkes on Instagram.

While Virginie Viard admirably took up Chanel's creative torch, the whole spirit of fashion has evolved since 2019. More disruption, digitalisation and collaboration have fed fashionistas and young audiences. While the latter are not necessarily the brand's customers today, they will be tomorrow, and desirability needs to be conquered as soon as possible. And the company was starting to run out of them, despite figures that were still at their peak, with sales expected to reach nearly 20 billion dollars by 2023.

In three weeks' time, Virginie Viard will present her haute couture show. The whole world will be watching with rapt attention.