Virginie Viard a no-show at her last Chanel show

If the latest Chanel haute couture in the Palais Garnier on Tuesday felt like a funeral that’s because it was. The house’s departing couturier Virginie Viard was not even in the opera house.

Staged somberly, this spring-summer 2024/25 brought down the curtain on Viard’s five and a half year reign at Chanel. And its first and final layered black satin looks would have been perfect for a Doge’s funeral in Venice.
 
On June 6, the house announced that Viard would be leaving the house, though without naming her successor. Historically, departing designers – especially from major fashion houses – generally stage a significant final show, gritting their teeth even as they take their final bow.

Not Viard, who was reportedly so shocked by the decision to fire her that she rapidly emptied her office at Chanel’s rue Cambon HQ, leaving in high dudgeon.
 
And, so, in the end, this collection was completed by Chanel’s in-house design team, and in fact, while far from being a vintage collection, was actually pretty good.
 
Guests arrived for the first of two morning shows in a somber mood. Adding to that was the odd decision to install a fake ceiling, cutting off the famed frescoes of the magnificent opera house. Weirder still, the color chosen was very close to the deep violet that Sabato Del Sarno has made his fetish color for Gucci.
 
Ambassadors like Keira Knightley or stars like Michelle Williams, Olivia Dean, Griff and filmmaker Audrey Diwan all sitting on red velvet armchairs in the darkened atmosphere. No sign of the traditional show program left on each seat at a couture catwalk.

A show that opened to the 60s cult rock ballad Sympathy by Rare Bird. The lyrics said it all: “Out in the cold and dark cause there’s not enough love to go round.”
 
Models walked jadedly around in a series of new suits – simple jackets, not four-pocket, with scalloped necks and passementerie, worn with pleated skirts finished at the knee.

Followed by some classic Coco jackets though with short funnel necks and flap pockets, some in Queen of England hues of aubergine and peach. 
 
Starring several metallic cocktails cut with leg of mutton sleeves; and a fabulous ecru latex dress finished with white coq feathers and a sequined bra. 

Chanel has been a patron of the Opéra national de Paris since 2023 and has hosted the dance season’s Opening Gala since 2018. Coco’s links to dance go much further back. And the collection made nods via a tutu and Pierrot outfits to the ballets Le Train Bleu (1924) and Apollon Musagète (1928) – for which she created the revolutionary costumes. 
 
Before an all-black finale, a group pose of the cast on the marble stairway of the Palais Garnier, and the realization that Viard would not be taking a final bow.

Viard who succeeded her former boss Karl Lagerfeld in 2019 at his passing, did oversee a period of sustained growth and soaring revenues at Chanel. Though the brand clearly had lost heat in recent seasons. No news on  who or when Chanel will announce a successor, but the current favorite is Hedi Slimane, the creative director of Celine, and the man who used to dress Karl.
 
A silent exit from the opera house. Often Chanel gift each guest a flacon of fine new scent as they depart a couture show. This time, all they got was a wee lipstick.