Free, Feminine and feebly Fabulous: Chanel by Virginie Viard

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by Shreya S

The thing is Chanel isn’t just defined by Coco Chanel, yes she created this magnificent brand but it was Karl Lagerfeld who made it what it is.

“Truthfulness and Realness Will Be Leading Me Going Forward” Virginie Viard. Though we have seen enough collections by her to sort of understand her vision yet I’m unable to grasp her vision for Chanel. This is because it is very fickle and unsure of itself. My thoughts on Viard have been so conflicting and vague. When it comes to doing a decent job for a fashion house she is doing fine. But when ‘Chanel’ comes to the picture, it all gets complicated.

Virginie Viard was appointed as the creative director of the glorious fashion house Chanel in 2019 after the tragic passing of Karl Lagerfeld. When your predecessor is someone as legendary as Karl Lagerfeld it can be quite a task to be even good enough to be compared to genius. And living up to such a legend leads to enormous pressure and expectations. Viard has worked with Karl for 36 years, which is a lot. She will be compared to him for a long time, it’s just how it is. Getting out of his shadows isn’t that easy. She and Karl have had a close working relationship, Karl called her “my right arm and my left arm”.

She has a simple and quiet approach, whereas Karl was extravagant and playful, both can be wonderful in their own ways. She obviously does create beautiful clothes, she did so when working for Karl too, but there’s a fine line between just creating clothes and creativity. We haven’t seen anything unique from her yet. But it hasn’t been that long yet, we can not judge so soon. She did explore the deeper roots of the brand very similar to what Clare Waight Keller did in Givenchy. Like I thought Clare wasn’t given enough time to shine at Givenchy, it would be hypocritical to do the opposite with Viard.

See I’m not saying Viard’s work is innately bad but the main question is ‘ Is it Chanel?’ Karl was glamorous, Virginie is elegant. She did bring a certain sense of femininity and elegance and with Karl, there were undertones of sexy and fantasy. Viard has made the brand more commercial i.e wearable which is smart and sometimes visible, I can actually see myself wearing her looks but I used to dream of wearing the clothes that Karl made. That right there is the fine line.

I didn’t hate all of her collections yet I even liked some of them but I don’t wanna like Chanel, I need to stay in love. I do think she has enormous potential and she makes beautiful clothes, I hope she keeps the charm and fantasy of Chanel alive while being realistic of course. The thing is she doesn’t make sellable clothes she might not be the Creative director for long and if she does Chanel will lose its magic.

If I were to choose her best collection I couldn’t but nothing has been that impactful or even memorable. She has a few decent items in each show but that’s about it. I think she can be the leader of Chanel driving it towards a new age. But I hope that happens soon because watching Chanel put on boring/average collections isn’t something we are used to.

Find a glimpse of her work from all her collections below and let us know you though on the future of Chanel.

Resort 2020