Again in December, Chanel confirmed that Matthieu Blazy was its new Inventive Director of Chanel, which got here into impact on 1 April. Since he took the helm, Blazy has been gathering the gifted troops of seasoned designers underneath the radar to change into a part of the brand new Chanel design group.
Blazy has tapped Maison Margiela’s Andrew Heather to hitch his design group, in line with WWD’s sources. It’s understood that Heather will begin begin his submit in June and can work in Chanel’s high fashion studio.
Heather, who’s a graduate of London’s Royal Faculty of Artwork, began out as a design assistant to Bruce Oldfield earlier than shifting to Paris in 1998 to work at Givenchy as head designer underneath Lee Alexander McQueen.
In 2011, he was named Artistic Director of fur home Revillon, following within the footsteps of iconic designers Rick Owens and Peter Dundas. Within the years following, Heather held senior design roles at Celine, Chloé and most lately Maison Margiela.
A Chanel spokesperson mentioned: “As we enter a brand new chapter, it’s pure that we should always take into account to have our artistic organisation evolve by bringing in new skills, whereas persevering with to depend on our present groups.”
Final December, after a lot hypothesis, Matthieu Blazy was confirmed as the subsequent Inventive Director of Chanel, marking the primary exterior appointment to the function since Karl Lagerfeld was employed to revamp the model in 1983.
After Virginie Viard’s exit from the function in June, Blazy’s title had been on the trade’s lips as a doable alternative. The French-Belgian designer served as Artistic Director for Bottega Veneta since 2021, following the sudden exit of now-Burberry Chief Artistic Officer Daniel Lee. Carven Artistic Director, Louise Trotter is Blazy’s successor on the Italian luxurious home.
The appointment succeeds Viard’s five-year tenure as Artistic Director, a task she assumed following Karl Lagerfeld’s loss of life in 2019. Since Viard’s departure was introduced, hypothesis over her successor has been rife. Names comparable to Hedi Slimane, John Galliano, and Simon Porte Jacquemus have been incessantly talked about, whereas Marc Jacobs brazenly expressed his curiosity within the place.
Alain Wertheimer, World Government Chairman, and Leena Nair, World CEO of Chanel, known as Blazy “some of the gifted designers of his era”.
“His imaginative and prescient and expertise will reinforce the power of the model and our place as a pacesetter in luxurious. Below Bruno Pavlovsky’s [Chanel’s President of Fashion] management, we’re assured that Matthieu Blazy will proceed to form what’s subsequent and write a brand new web page in Chanel’s creation,” they mentioned.
