French luxury label Chanel‘s Virginie Viard is stepping down from her role as artistic director. Viard has been with the label for 30 years, including the last five years as director, a role she stepped into when Karl Lagerfeld passsed away at age 85. The news was broken by Vogue Business today.
The statement from the label read: “Chanel confirms the departure of Virginie Viard after a rich collaboration of five years as artistic director of fashion collections, during which she was able to renew the codes of the house while respecting the creative heritage of Chanel, and almost thirty years within the house. A new creative organisation will be announced in due course. Chanel would like to thank Virginie Viard for her remarkable contribution to Chanel’s fashion, creativity and vitality.”
The news follows on the heels of Chanel reporting 2023 revenue of 19.7 billion dollars in revenue, up 16 percent versus 2022. In report, the luxury brand cautioned that conditions in the luxury industry are growing more challenging.
In the same news release, Chanel praised Viard’s contributions to the label, describing her as “an inspiring woman very successfully creating for women everywhere, and the feedback of clients: the comfort, the silhouette, the fit, it’s really positive, it’s landing really well.”
As for her replacement, there have been rumors circulating for several weeks that Hedi Slimane is stepping down from his role at Celine and will take over as Chanel creative director.
