Video: Chanel girl Virginie Viard: Who is she - assistant, muse and successor of Karl Lagerfeld
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Karl Lagerfeld was a whole era for the fashion industry, and many were unable to imagine someone else at the head of Chanel, and even more so - a designer whose name was not known to the general public. However, Virginie Viard was for many years a muse, companion and colleague of the great Charles - although she remained in the shadows. Only her could he trust …
Virginie Viard was born and raised in a family that appreciated fashion, and with her mother's milk she absorbed a love for beautiful clothes. Literally - Virginie's mother and grandmother were constantly sewing, and grandfather owned a fabric business. In general, Virginie did not have any thoughts about her future profession and mission - she herself did not part with patterns and a sewing machine. True, her relatives disliked Chanel, considering it a brand “for rich old women”. At the age of twenty, together with a friend, she organized her own fashion brand called Nirvana. There was not one iota of grunge - simple and elegant styles. Grandfather "sponsored" the enterprise, providing the girls with fabrics … However, Viard was really fascinated by theatrical costumes and cinematography. Before meeting Lagerfeld, she worked as a costume designer for a film about Rodin's student Camille Claudel, created images for theatrical performances, but in 1987 she came to the Chanel embroidery studio and … stayed there forever.
Four years later, she became studio director at the behest of Lagerfeld himself. In the mid-90s, they worked together at Chloé, and then Virginie took over as coordinator of the haute couture direction at Chanel. Since 2000, she has created ready-to-wear collections with Lagerfeld.
Karl Lagerfeld was not an easy-going character, but he had a warm personal relationship with Wiard. Perhaps she was the only woman who became truly significant and irreplaceable for the couturier - both as a colleague and as a friend. Virginie had enough courage to disagree with the "great Charles", to argue with him, to debate violently … And he trusted only her opinion and never tired of repeating that Virginie breathes life into his creations, and he does not allow him to lose touch with reality and forget about the needs of clients.
Everything really depended on Viard. As soon as fashionable reviewers did not call her! And the conductor of the Chanel orchestra, and the "rails" along which the fashion house rides, and - what was closest to the truth - the "gray eminence" … to show and develop ideas for podium decorations - all this was done by Virginie. She seemed to know in advance how to implement the images he created in the material, how to make a real masterpiece from an ephemeral sketch, masterfully drawn by a couturier, which is to appear on the catwalk. Viard says that she has always been a "Chanel girl", has always belonged to this fashion house and does not know what it means to be someone else.
At the same time, Virginie really knew how to remain invisible. She was not included in the lists of the most influential, most famous and even more so the richest people in the fashion industry in the opinion of this or that magazine, she did not "shine" on social networks and even seemed to elude the photographs taken by the paparazzi. Only in recent years did she begin to bow with Karl, and in January 2019 she appeared on the podium alone. Its reputation has been and remains perfectly clean. No scandals, loud statements and intrigues.
And Viard looked - and looks - almost invisible. She loves black, jeans and blazers, flats … and is not the right dressing for Chanel - her favorites include Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Maison Margiela and Comme des Garçons. She even adapts extravagant things so that they look neutral, and admits that she simply hates going shopping, and will never change her simple hairstyle in her life. In terms of everyday life, Viard is also simple and unassuming - together with her son and partner (Viard is against the formalization of marriage), she lives in an art workshop littered with books, paintings, musical instruments and finds from the flea market.
What about the creative ideas and imagery that Viard presents to the public as Chanel's creative director? Indeed, to date, several collections have already come out from under her hand. Its main task is to work so that "the legacy of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld can live on." With all her colossal experience and contribution to the development of the brand, Virginie has always refused to consider herself a creative person. However, Viard is not a medium conveying the messages of the departed heads of the brand into the world of the living. She strives to ensure that the Chanel fashion house will never return to the reputation of "clothes for rich old women", but with honor responded to the challenges of our time. Now even the idol of teenagers Billie Eilish, known for her somewhat dismissive attitude to the fashion industry and glamor, wears Chanel clothes.
Viar puts the models in boots and boots with steady heels, often exchanges elegant dresses for wide-leg trousers and military-style jackets, references to work overalls and uniforms - why not?
Shorts and crop tops, short satin pajamas are replacing the signature two-piece suit, skirts are getting shorter and shorter, white trousers with slits and leggings in flashy colors coexist with long raincoats, but the key motifs of Chanel are present in every look - brooches and prints with crisscrossing Cs, tailored two-tone shoes, timeless tweed and quilted chain bags. Virginie breathed great practicality and convenience into the brand's images, but at the same time - softness and relaxation.
After her high-profile name, Viard practically did not give any comments to the press, but the collections created under her leadership speak louder than words. Muse and the face of the brand, actress Kristen Stewart, called Viard's works soaring and fast, and also thanked her for the fact that these things give women the freedom to be themselves and the desire to move towards the goal, and not just show off - which is still a rarity in the fashion industry …
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