Chanel’s Virginie Viard on the Future: “Truthfulness and Realness Will Be Leading Me Going Forward”
Chanel’s Virginie Viard on the Future: “Truthfulness and Realness Will Be Leading Me Going Forward”
April 27, 2020
https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/designer/chanel
Virginie Viard directs Chanel. She submitted a self-portrait and was interviewed for Vogue’s June/July portfolio. Her conversation with Hamish Bowles has been condensed and edited.
During these days, I have had a lot of time to think. Like everyone else, I had a lot of memories which came to my mind, I especially thought of people who are not with us anymore. I have been thinking of Karl [Lagerfeld] even more (even though I did think of him every day even when I could go to work too), wondering what he would do or say during these times.
And, with the outbreak of the health crisis and the critical situations in the hospitals, I couldn’t help thinking of my father—of what he would do or say. You might know that both my parents were doctors. My father has always been very comforting to me, very compassionate with his patients, always smiling despite the hard situations he might have been facing at the hospital. All my young years, I have the memory of patient’s families calling home daily to ask how the surgery went and my parents taking the time to talk to everyone. Every Sunday afternoon, as a child, I would dress up as a nurse/doctor with one of my siblings and accompany my father to the hospital to meet and cheer up some of his patients. Those were special moments of my childhood. I guess my love for doctors dates back to that time, really doctors and nurses have been always my favorite.
I chose this photograph in particular because I love this image of my father surrounded by so many young and smiling faces. Not to mention in this picture he makes me think of French actor Michel Piccoli in the movie Les Choses de la Vie (The Things of Life) by Claude Sautet. There are other images of the past I have been looking at. For example, I recently did some research on the net and ran into so many images of Karl with models and friends at different parties, in the early 2000s. Those were also comforting and heart-lifting, in a different way.
I have worked with my team for so long; we have such strong relationships and understanding. I have no doubt we will be able to find new ways of working, depending on the evolution of the situation.
I am staying home safe with my family. Since the beginning of the lockdown, we have been in the countryside. Personally, I miss going to work, I especially miss the studio. Within the world of Chanel, it is certainly one of my favorite things. I have been going there for over 30 years. It was Karl’s and Gabrielle Chanel’s studio—to me it has never been an ordinary workplace. I was able to progress on the themes of the cruise collection before the outbreak; all the details are clear in my head and we are perfectly aligned with the teams. I speak with them daily to continue to exchange ideas, discuss projects, and obviously make sure everyone is well. I have worked with my team for so long; we have such strong relationships and understanding. I have no doubt we will be able to find new ways of working, depending on the evolution of the situation. Personally, I am taking it day by day, I am ready to readjust and change habits and routines, as the situation requires it.
My approach to work has always been rather simple and pragmatic, but more than ever, I feel truthfulness and a realness will be leading me going forward. I will be focusing on the essential and even though I know it will be different, I am confident it will still be good. I am impressed and inspired by so many responsible behaviors and by the generosity of all people working to help others, often at their own risk. When I think of my parents, when I see all the efforts made in the hospitals, I still have hope for the future. Life inspires me in general. I guess spending so much time in my countryside house gives me ideas I wouldn’t have had if I had stayed and worked in Paris.
Vogue’s Night at the Museum—Circa 1945
BY LAIRD BORRELLI-PERSSON, April 27, 2020
THE EGYPTIAN IDEA: A silhouette shown over and again on ancient friezes...a narrow covering, moulded down with a sparing use of drapery to a hobbled hem. New edition, a desert beige dinner-dress derived from Metropolitan Museum sources. Ben Reig design by Omar Kiam, in an Onondaga rayon crêpe macle to specifications for this particular dress. Chen Yu “Frozen Fire” lipstick and nail lacquer, intense coral-red to kindle beige.Photographed by John Rawlings, Vogue, June 1945
This story is part of a series, Past/Present, highlighting images and articles from Vogue that have personal significance to our editors.
Have you ever wondered what happens in a museum after dark—or what is happening now, during quarantine? I’ll admit to amusing myself these past few weeks by imagining the dresses in the Costume Institute stepping out of their storage and dancing off their deep sleep before wandering upstairs to enjoy being alone with the Fragonards and Goyas. It will be a while until we can enjoy these treasures in person, but we will.
This is the time of year when the capital of fashion seems to have a specific address: 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York. The first Monday of May is generally a red-letter day for the industry, as stars and museum supporters gather for the dazzling Met Gala. Like the “About Time: Fashion and Duration” exhibition, the party that would have celebrated it is on hold.
THE GREEK THEORY: A theory of rational, beautiful lines, restated in this contemporary chiton: a mint-colour dinner-dress…blouse with a sequinned laurel wand, skirt with a triangled hem (it can be evened up). Tina Leser designed it from the Greek art collection at the Metropolitan Museum, using an especially created Foreman rayon crêpe. The Neo-Grecian sandals are Lucite, models only—available sometime in the future.Photographed by John Rawlings, Vogue, June 1945
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If it’s no time for festivities, it is one for reflection. As such, the moody stillness of the pictures John Rawlings took for “The Metropolitan Museum…Fashion Source,” a story that appeared in the June 1945 issue of Vogue, have great resonance. Photographed inside the institution, these images document a collaborative art/fashion project initiated by the museum. Teams of fabric and dress designers, Vogue reported, were invited “to work together, taking their inspiration from objects in the vast collections.” The resulting designs were presented in a public-facing show, and some were put into production and sold locally. A cheering example of solidarity all around.
[An] embroidered 18th-century dandy’s vest that inspired Hafner’s Bemberg rayon gilded brocade…and the shining dinner costume that was made of it. The sleeves are green silk jersey, the green repeated in a scarf. Suzanne-Augustine design.Photographed by John Rawlings, Vogue, June 1945
The circumstances in which this project happened are as extraordinary as the sitting’s location. In 1945 the American fashion industry was cut off from Paris, and not only forced to find its own footing—fast—but also to discover ways to work with less. We’re at a similar place regarding the latter today.
Clockwise from top left: ETRUSCAN WARRIOR…inspiration for the fabric and for the striking dinner-dress by Adrian; the Fiberset rayon crêpe made especially by Bianchini. VENETIAN BROCADE…source of a theatre-scene print on Gourdon’s Enka rayon crêpe; the print inspired a gown designed by Madame Eta. GRECIAN FRE…taken intact to stripe a Bianchini Fiberset rayon crêpe. The print inspired Traina-Norell’s slim little gown with a train. ANGEL’S WINGS from a 15th-century painting inspired Vertès wingéd print on Wesley Simpson’s Enka rayon crepe. From the print, a sequinned dinner-dress by Hattie Carnegie. Photographed by John Rawlings, Vogue, June 1945
The parallels between then and now are striking. On the cover of the magazine was an open letter from “the Commanders of our Army and Navy” urging readers to continue to buy war bonds. Inside were Lee Miller’s photos of the unbelievable atrocities of the war. Introducing the issue was an essay, “Half-Way to Victory: May 8, 1945,” cataloging some of the lessons of the catastrophe, such as: “We have learned that the world is one world,” and “We have learned that we must work with other nations in order to achieve a common goal.” Then there’s this: “We have learned that doing with less is not as bad as we thought.” These are the subjects we’re grappling with again today.
As we start to emerge from self-isolation, designers will put the concept of creative limitation (the idea that innovation is abetted when resources are restricted) into practice. We already see a great yearning for community; hopefully that will lead to collaborative projects like the one organized by the Met 75 years ago. Vogue praised the endeavor as a sign of “promise for the future of fashion as an art.”
Having worked in a fashion museum, more interesting to me was how this enterprise gave meaning (that current buzzword) to clothing by activating the mission of the Costume Institute—as it was put forth in a 1947 Vogue article. Not only does the collection exist to preserve “the enduring reality of the past as reflected in dress,” noted the magazine, but to make manifest “the founders’ guiding theme of clothes as things of beauty, part of the embellishment of life.” The hunger for grace never abates: fashion and duration, indeed.
“The Metropolitan Museum…Fashion Source,” photographed by John Rawlings, was published in the June 1945 issue of the magazine.