Matthieu Blazy Emerges as a Top Contender for Chanel’s New Fashion Creative Director

Chanel’s search for a new fashion creative director seems to be coming to an end.

Sources told WWD the French house intends to reveal the successor to Virginie Viard, who exited the house in June after a five-year tenure, toward mid-December.

Matthieu Blazy, who has made Bottega Veneta into one of the hottest tickets in Milan, has emerged as a new contender for the plum Paris post, the same sources said.

The designer did not return repeated calls requesting comment.

According to sources, Bottega Veneta has already initiated a search for Blazy’s successor, reaching out to second-in-command talents, as is the custom of brand parent Kering, which also controls Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and McQueen.

Kering officials declined all comment on Friday.

It is understood Chanel has cast a wide net, interviewing the likes of Pieter Mulier, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Jeremy Scott and Marc Jacobs, sources told WWD.

Contacted by WWD on Friday, a Chanel spokeswoman said a new creative organization would be announced “in due course” and declined further comment.

Blazy has been creative director of Bottega Veneta since November 2021, when he rose from ready-to-wear designer to succeed Daniel Lee at the design helm.

He has won consistent acclaim for collections hinged on sophisticated, grown-up chic and haute craftsmanship.

He’s also been gaining renown as a fashion showman capable of pulse-pounding runway action and imaginative sets, which for spring 2025 consisted of beanbag chairs in 15 animal shapes.

Born in Paris in 1984, Blazy is a graduate of La Cambre in Brussels, and he started his fashion career as men’s designer for Raf Simons.

From 2016 to 2019, Blazy worked at Calvin Klein as part of the team Raf Simons brought to New York, working on the men’s and women’s collections as design director.

Before Calvin Klein, Blazy, who is a French and Belgian national, worked in the studio of Celine under then-creative director Phoebe Philo, becoming senior designer in 2014, and for four years at Maison Margiela, ultimately responsible for its couture line, dubbed Artisanal.

Chanel Fashion has been without a creative leader since the surprise departure of Virginie Viard in June after more than three decades at the house, and five at the helm following the death of Karl Lagerfeld in February 2019. Chanel’s spring 2025 collection was designed by an in-house team.