Mathieu Blasi takes the helm at chanel with a Game-Changing decision

The second half of 2024 was filled with a handful of milestones that the fashion should not forget anytime soon. Among them was Virginie Viard departing the position of creative director of Chanel. Though she was at the beak for five of her 30 years at the House, the “right hand” of Karl Lagerfeld worked longer than she should have.

Well, let’s just say the work fell short. Second, the creative director position at the brand remained unoccupied for six months after Virginie’s departure. And for a power player the scale of Chanel this isn’t exactly the new norm, with the House at risk of being without a ship’s captain. Thirdly, the House finally appointed a creative and it wasn’t the most obvious pick ever – Mathieu Blasi.

Who is Mathieu Blasi?

Let it not be said that our use of the phrase “least obvious creative director of the house” is an indication of a lack of talent or qualifications on his part. Mathieu has the opposite in spades. He had also worked with Raf Simons at Calvin Klein, Phoebe Philo at Celine, and Maison Margiela on women’s couture collections. But also, Mathieu was Bottega Veneta’s creative director and a successful creative director.

Why shouldn’t you have expected to see Blasi at Chanel?

However, when the notion of placing someone in command of Chanel, Blasi was not the first to ring a bell. At least because he does not associate a well-behaved lady in tweed, white tights, and a camellia pin, which struts the runway of every Chanel show, with his collections for Bottega, or his design ethos.

Another factor that likely kept Blasi out of many expected candidate lists for so long was the quality of his competition. The most notable of which is John Galliano who has just been suggested to become the next creative director of the House. But thus far Galliano has not managed to secure a larger position, despite the all-powerful Anna Wintour taking him under her wing. This is due to the worldwide furor over his antisemitic comments and then the ensuing “cancellation.”

This followed yesterday’s game of musical chairs ended with the appointment of Mathieu Blasi at the so-called “hottest” fashion post for months. We reconcile what Chanel can offer Blasi, and what Blasi can offer Chanel back, and explain why the latter, highly unlikely-looking couple can work, and quite well too.

Five Ways That Mathieu Blasi Will Make Chanel Different

The House will be selling more

The only serious competition left in fashion is between the two biggest players in the market, Kering and LVMH. The latter includes Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Loro Piana, Fendi, Celine, and various other cash cow brands with expanding profits. And Kering is in an even worse place: despite Gucci, Alexander McQueen, and Brioni in its portfolio, the group’s earnings are on the decline. Bottega Veneta was still the ‘cash cow’ house for François-Henri-Pinault – the ‘family brand’ was the sole one to post revenue increases in the Markdowns for the third quarter of 2024.

Of course, things at Chanel are neither low profits nor a reason for complaint – even under Virginie Viard, the brand was remarkably “solid” in sales. But there is no such thing as too many golden egg-laying hens, and Chanel is an egg-laying hen par excellence, and Mathieu Blasi will multiply its capital as he did at Bottega.

Chanel will become trendy

Chanel is, was, and will be worn by the mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers of the girls from Ostozhenka or Fifth Avenue — and their girls will always buy the House’s products. But any money-making brand should remember that besides “old money”, there is another target audience.

In this case, however, there is no way around trendy things. This poses a dilemma for Chanel since the young girls of today certainly don’t want to don prim and proper and dull tweed jackets and classic 2.55 bags, the soul of an influencer lives in a more viral ensemble than that.

Well, in this here, the best is Mathieu Blasi. He won’t replicate the cors with the whole pathetic hope that nobody will notice. Instead, he will set his own trends that will be recycled.

You needn’t look far for an example, either: Bottega via Vogue, November 2020 their woven bags ascended to it-bag status within just a couple of seasons – then mass markets started muttering amongst themselves about who could whip up something similar – isn’t that the ultimate proof that you’ve managed to start a trend? Moreover, we can quietly wait for stars on the catwalk, non-trivial solutions — in general, everything that will bring the brand “hype”.

Products will be of better quality

For a hundred thousand rubles Miu Miu headband, we have long known that this is far from a guarantee of good quality. However, when you see radically different numbers from you — you involuntarily cling to the old slogan “price = quality.”

And Chanel ain’t even that good, because bloggers packed social media in 2024 whining about chips and cracks and scabs on bags six months new. And we imagine that their regulars in the London and French Riviera mansions are somewhat displeased with this — freaking sure not keen to lose them.

And Mathieu has something to sell now – a lifetime guarantee applied to bags, which sounds as arrogant as it is deserved because Bottega’s bags are very good. And if the chain does break on your Andiamo, it will be mended with care.

There is an impact on the brands will grow

Bottega Veneta had its own “ecosystem.” And no, they didn’t launch a taxi ordering and grocery delivery service, but they were in the incredible habit of collaborating with artists, photographers, and art galleries, given the new work. It is a viable strategy because the brand, this way, starts to be more than just a clothes and accessories maker – from now on it becomes a full-fledged cultural player.

Such activities would seem far too passé for Chanel. But, if you want to expand your audience and make money, it needs to be even more platforms.

The stakes are too high

We are in an age of designers who can hardly show what they are capable of within a single brand, before being ushered to the exit of their respective offices. Unfortunately, that seems to be purely a coincidence because Mathieu Blasi has a real shot of remaining at Chanel longer than a couple of seasons — or at least, that seems to be the hope of the fashion direction head of the House, Bruno Pavlovsky. He said they want to continue with Blasi for 10-15 more years and that alone is a testament to how much he is appreciated. But don’t read too much into those lines — Pavlovsky says it himself: “Many are talented. We wanted something more though.”