Fash Week Special: Jac of all trades
The top job in fashion has been vacant for three months ever since Virginie Viard stepped down from the top of the podium at Chanel. Might Simon Porte Jacquemus prove a worthy successor?
After three months without a successor, fashion industry rumours have reached fever pitch as to the heir to Virginie Viard’s questionable legacy at Chanel. Though the evidence has mounted (more on that later), the announcement itself has yet to come. Have the spring-chicken septuagenarians, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer (Chanel’s owners), got cold feet? Is the move to Gen Z’s darling of clickable clothing content too obvious? Too abrupt? After all, if Simon Porte Jacquemus’ designs are insta-worthy, Viard’s were positively camera-shy.
A recap: there has been no creative director chez Maison Chanel since Viard “stood down” in June, five years into her tenure. Chanel is the biggest fashion house in the world after Louis Vuitton, pulling in a revenue close to $20 billion in 2023 (Vuitton pulled in $22 billion). Viard’s designs may have been woefully unimaginative, but when it comes to sales, her strategy – staid, uninteresting – clearly paid off. There’s a column to be written about that alone – what does it say about us? The purveyors? The culture?? – but what matters now is this. How do you maintain economic success while building back the clout of a house that made Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista, and – frankly – France?
Besides Jacquemus there are others in the running; Hedi Slimane, Thom Browne and Maison Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier, but for Gauche these are all a bit Goneril and Regan to Lear’s Cordelia. After all, you’d have to be blind and heartless to not feel a little lightheaded gazing upon Jacquemus’ fields of lavender (SS20), or the even more famous hills of Zendaya’s abs in that Challengers tour fit (see below). You may think of the Salon-de-Provence designer as more style over substance: a mini-bag for a mini moment and the saccharine sentimentalist which our superficial generation deserves. But Coco herself was frequently more concerned with beauty than brains (particularly in the years following 1938). In an age in which Emily in Paris tops the Netflix charts, Jacquemus may swell a particular, old-school brand of frivolité française into a truly mega player, like Karl Lagerfeld did before him (the German designer was creative director of the house for 36 years).
While the focus may be on who will be asked, there seems a reluctance to believe Jacquemus himself may be asking. Five years ago, Anna Wintour supposedly questioned the designer as to whether he ever wanted to work for a “big house”, to which he replied: “I have a big house. It’s called Jacquemus.” Many in the industry have come to terms with Simon’s clear desire to build a strong and independent namesake brand. But really, Gauche asks, have the seeds been strewn across Provençal fields all along?
Born into a rustic farming family, Simon Porte Jacquemus followed his dreams at the tender age of 18 and moved to the city of Love. Inspired by his family heritage, in particular his late mother, and his Mediterranean upbringing, he brought colour and eye-catching femininity to the runways, building a staggeringly successful career and founding his eponymous label at just 20. His full name literally translates to Simon Wears Jacquemus: written in the stars or what?
It’s hard not to draw parallels with Mme Chanel’s rural upbringing in a French convent, and the simplicity of shape and rural frugality of her clothes (not that the price tags would suggest any of this). Or Largerfeld’s self-mythologised childhood, the way he worshipped his female family members, and his rapid, ascendent rise — the boy genius twins to become genii.
With the gloriously camp Olympics just past (sponsored heavily by LVMH), and the already mentioned Emily (much the same), it seems time for the French to embrace the déclassé. Bring us waiters in tiny moustaches, bring us tiny bags and eclairs to put in them. Jacquemus at Chanel would not be chic; it would be manifeste, it would be pas cool, it would be GAUCHE. Vive la France!
The Rumours Swirl! A Timeline
2019: Virginie Viard replaces Karl, “the Kaiser”, upon his death. Lagerlites everywhere, led by Kristen Stewart, wither for half a decade.
2 May 2024: Chanel’s annual cruise show ferries guests to a grey and windy Marseille, suggesting a brand with Norman roots might actually dip its toe – or heels? – into Mediterranean waters.
5th June 2024: Mid-afternoon on a Sunday Wednesday, and Viard’s exit is clunkily announced. Abrupt and somewhat mishandled, her departure leaves a confusing black hole.
8th June 2024: YouTuber Loic Prigent’s tour of the Jacquemus office, guided by its namesake, reveals closer links between the designer and Lagerfeld than we had imagined; a framed joint drawing.
29th August 2024: Lauren Sherman for Puck News reveals Simon has already met with the brand’s CEO and Head of Fashion. A Kaiser in waiting?
3rd September 2024: Jacquemus supposedly presents to the famed Wertheimer brothers. Outcome as of 12th September 2024: Unknown.
Davina Thomas is the creative director of Gauche Magazine