I think I'm the only person on earth who does not see it at all considering Hedi at Chanel...
I loved when Karl echoed his personal style and obsession of Dior Homme into his work at Chanel but it will be totally ridiculous to attribute the same genius to Hedi, who, in all fairness has proved his limits in terms of womenswear in less than a decade.
I will quietly hope for Nicolas to get the job (or Phoebe). I think Versatility is interesting for a house like Chanel and to have done Vuitton, Balenciaga and Callaghan has gave him a real perspective of the industry and allowed him to experience the whole spectrum.
I think that more than my disappointment for Hedi, my lack of interest to indulge once again in a certain nostalgia is really what makes me champion Nicolas
Karl wanted to be involved with EVERYTHING CHANEL. The Weirthemers never allowed it despite him being their friend. Chanel might be the ultimate brand but I'm very sure The Weirthemers will never allow Hedi to mess with the brand...AKA, force his aesthetic and all it principles into the brand (No Helvetica, redesign of the stores).
Haider is great but I think his clothes are too specific to adapt to a larger than life brand like Chanel. I've always said that he would be great at Hermes. Then, there's this fantasy of Phoebe....
Her and Maria Grazia would likely disguise their lack of creative talent and technical skills by saying that their fashions are for “real women”— and the masses lap it up cuz that’s so “empowering”. There seems to be a pattern of frumpiness/dumpiness with the likes of her and Maria-Grazia— all claiming to champion “real” women and body-positive trendiness, with which the “diverse” cast and whatever profitable virtue-signaling ploy is more important than the creativity of design and/or any technical application. It’s a marketing-gimmick template of any corporation that wants to maximize profit margins by selling to as many “average-size” customers and their consumer-taste as possible while still keeping their (still-rising) premium price point, and minimizing revenue losses with conservative creative direction and investment.
I suppose by having even models look dumpy in ill-fitting smocks, it’s more relatable to the average shopper: There’s nothing to aspire to when even models look like the average outlet shopper. Virginie’s is the epitome of soulless mall-clothes-- just like Maria Grazia's is the epitome of department-store designs. If some nameless suburban mall in middle-America put on a fashion show, this dowdy basic offering and presentation would be it. The dream is dead.
I think somehow it all comes to the ever debate between fashion and clothes.
MGC and Virginie designs clothes...In the most dry way possible. Fashion is more accessible than it has been ever before. People buy from designers products they could buy in the fast fashion or contemporary. And suddenly, for the masses, being fashionable looks more like a fabulous exercise of branding than a real expression of their style or personality.
We see it today in a different way with the obsession over the Birkin and Kelly bags. Growing up, those bags really represented a certain type of ladies: older, bourgeoise, conservative or business women in circles of power. Today, the bag means "I'm rich". So, you have women in fashionova carrying Birkin...The bag is totally detached from it lifestyle.
Why would you want the best quality for your bag and at the same time the worst quality for your clothes?
The level of requirement people have from designers clothes today has completely decreased.
Louis Vuitton menswear is selling like crazy. Why? Simply because they have found the most ingenious ways to put the monogram in every category of products: printed on a shirt, embossed on a suit, embroidered on a sweater...
Today long are gone the days where brands only cared about selling perfumes and accessories. For brands like Chanel, Dior or Vuitton, the bags in some cases costs more than RTW. When LVMH stopped the « J’adore Dior » era of Galliano, they stopped the production of those entry-priced level products. They only came back with MGC. At Chanel, they have always proposed a small sportswear offering...But it wasn’t advertised and it was mostly part of the commercial or precollections...