What you don’t know about Chanel’s new Creative Director – Virginie Viard

Two days ago, the fashion world was shocked when Chanel’s Creative Director – Karl Lagerfeld – suddenly died at the age of 85. Immediately, the French luxury fashion brand quickly appointed Virginie Viard to fill in that position. A close friend to Karl, Viard is also described as Karl’s right hand man as she has been with him for more than three decades. Even, she was standing by Karl’s side during the time he struggled with illness.

Although going up with Karl, but Virginie Viard is still a mystery for the fashion world. So, when she is ready to fill her predecessor’s vacant position at Chanel, it is time for us to take a look through this new Creative Director.

Viard started working at Chanel as a trainee

In 1987, four years after Lagerfeld was appointed to the position of Creative Director, he nominated Viard for a position at Chanel after working together at Chloé. She then started work at Chanel as an intern in embroidery for haute-couture collections, and a 32-year relationship with Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld began from then on.

She worked at Chloé with Karl before working with him at Chanel

Impressed at work, she became a right hand man of Karl during the period of 5 years working at Chloé. After joining the Chanel roof, Karl also found a way to have her work beside him as a coordinator for the haute-couture product line. In 2000, she climbed to supervise the ready-to-wear line of Chanel.

Their relationship goes far beyond work lines

The relationship between Lagerfeld and Viard is not just about fabrics or meetings. During the years of working together, the couple became more and more close. In Netflix’s 7 Days Out reportage series, Lagerfeld also explained: “Virginie is the most important person, not only for me, but for everyone. She is my right hand man and even when she is not, we contact each other by phone.

However, one thing that Lagerfeld certainly never revealed to Netflix was that he would sometimes text Viard, and pretend he was his cat Choupette – this was revealed by Viard himself during the talk. with W Magazine.

Viard used to design costumes for movies

As the granddaughter of a silk producer, Viard has always been fascinated by fashion related things, but, as she once told Crash magazine, her original plan was to design outfits for movie. She started her career as a costume assistant, working on a number of films and plays, including the TV series Three Colors: Blue starring Juliette Binoche, and the comedy film Three Colors: White. Both of these films have Krzysztof Kieslowski as director.

Fashion is not her inspiration

Lagerfeld once said that fashion is a reflection of our lives and our time, and Viard seems to have a similar opinion. She said that her son, music, theater, partnerships and exhibitions are the inspiration behind her work.

In the same interview with Crash magazine, she explained: “I have a fashion eye, but it is not my inspiration”. Instead, the way she designs mainly depends on intuition. “I feel like I work the same way I did twenty years ago. And everything went smoothly because, above all, our studio focuses on teamwork. I don’t feel like a director at all. ”

More than that, it seems that her ego is perfectly suited to work at Chanel. “We are both considered to be on the same level. Although the team is based entirely on me. However, there was not any conflict. In the end, Karl was the one who consulted garment factories, and I didn’t need to be there. He is always the one to make the final decision. ” However, that has completely changed.

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