Legendary French fashion house Chanel allegedly has selected Matthieu Blazy as its next creative director. Blazy is currently the creative director for Bottega Veneta, a role he’s held since 2017.
The rumor was first divulged in mid-November by WWD, which reported that the label plans to reveal former creative director Virginine Viard‘s successor in mid-December.
More recently the news was confirmed by Puck News reporter Lauren Sherman who added that Chanel would make the official announcement on December 16th. Sherman also noted that Carven designer Louise Trotter will likely take over Blazy’s role at Bottega Veneta, one of a house of brands held by Kering Group.
Since Viard departed her role as lead creative in June, Chanel is said to have interviewed Pieter Mulier, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Jeremy Scott, Simon Porte Jacquemus and Marc Jacobs for the role.
Born in Paris, the 40-year-old Blazy is a graduate of La Cambre in Brussels. While in school, he interned at Balenciaga and John Galliano and began his career as a menswear designer for Raf Simons.
In 2011, he brought his talents to Maison Margiela where he was known to have designed the crystal mask worn by Ye during the 2013 Yeezus tour. He joined Celine under Phoebe Philo‘s direction in 2014 and was eventually appointed senior designer of pre-collections.
When Simons was tapped as creative director of Calvin Klein in 2016, Blazy joined his team in New York and was appointed design director of women’s ready-to-wear, a role he held until 2019.
In 2020, Matthieu Blazy was appointed design director of ready-to-wear at Bottega Veneta. However, two weeks before a contentious split between then-creative director Daniel Lee and the company, Blazy resigned from his position. Shortly after Lee’s departure, Blazy returned to Bottega Veneta and was officially named creative director in November 2021.
Photo: Willy Vanderperre
