PARIS — Talk about writing a new chapter.
With the publication of her memoir on Sept. 30, Virginie Viard has made her comeback after being fired as creative director of Chanel — and garnered almost as much buzz during Paris Fashion Week as the brands debuting their new collections.
On Wednesday evening, she spent more than three hours signing copies at Galignani, the favorite bookstore of her former boss Karl Lagerfeld. The crowd included family and friends like designers Vanessa Seward and Yasmine Eslami, former Chanel public relations director Marie-Louise de Clermont-Tonnerre, photographer Inez van Lamsweerde and a group of seamstresses from Chanel.
“It was very moving; they brought me flowers,” Viard said in an interview the next day at the offices of Stock, the French publisher of “Un Regard: Une Vie Chez Chanel,” which loosely translates to “My Life at Chanel.” More than 200 copies were sold at the event, on par with a “Harry Potter” launch.
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It feels like a renaissance for Viard, who kept a low public profile during her five years at the helm of Chanel, and has largely fallen off the radar since leaving the house in 2024. She’s delighted with the public reaction to the book.
“With each passing day, I feel lighter,” Viard said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, because you just never know how it will be received. Once I finished it, I almost felt like I was done with it, but then it takes on a life of its own.”
Her return to the public stage has revealed a new side of the designer: outspoken, confident and secure in the public eye. She credits the change to a life coach, who helped her digest her sudden departure from Chanel after 37 years.
“I needed to get back on my feet,” she said. “I wasn’t unhappy, I didn’t get sick, but I couldn’t seem to move on. I was stuck in a rut.”
During that time she kept her distance from former colleagues, as the house underwent a wide-ranging reorganization under new creative director Matthieu Blazy.
“I didn’t see anyone from Chanel. I didn’t want to know how it was going. I just wanted to be in my bubble,” she recalled. “In the beginning, I was just jotting everything down in my little journal, but having the opportunity to write this book feels like an incredible gift. It’s like making an haute couture dress.”
Sudden Exit
The tome offers an unprecedented window into the inner workings of the privately held fashion house, which is owned by the secretive Wertheimer family — and a vulnerable insight into the reality of life as a designer helming a $20 billion luxury juggernaut.
In it, Viard recounts how she was told over lunch with Alain Wertheimer, global executive chairman of Chanel, that she was being let go. The next day, her belongings were sent to her home.
Viard said she did not take issue with the company’s decision to change creative direction, but with the fact that she was shown the door without an official farewell. “I didn’t get it. I still don’t get it today,” she said.
During her tenure Viard was credited with breathing fresh lightness into Chanel’s collections, with sales of ready-to-wear multiplying by 2.5 under her watch. “I was happy that coming after Karl, I was able to bring that gentle, feminine touch,” she said.
But critics felt her collections lacked novelty, and in the months leading up to her dismissal, online discourse turned increasingly negative, culminating with a disastrously received cruise show in Marseille in May 2024.
“I wasn’t aware of it,” said Viard, who isn’t on social media. (Her official verified Instagram account, which has 53,000 followers, was created by Chanel and has only posted twice, in 2019.)
“I knew I wouldn’t stay in the job another 20 years. I figured it would last another year or two, but I didn’t think it would happen like that,” she confessed.
Viard worked with Lagerfeld for 30 years, but he kept the details of his illness deliberately vague, and his succession was never openly discussed. She learned she would take over as creative director the day he died in 2019.
Still grieving, Viard struggled to occupy the void left by Lagerfeld, whose larger-than-life personality loomed over the Paris fashion landscape and whose workload at Chanel spanned no fewer than 10 collections a year.
“It was a huge place, and a huge job, walking in huge footsteps,” she said. “How do you measure up to that? It’s dizzying. So I thought, ‘Well, let’s focus on the work’ — and there was a lot to do.”
Soul-Searching
Unlike Lagerfeld, Viard generally shunned the press, seeing only a handful of editors — including WWD — at Chanel’s traditional pre-show fittings and declining most interview requests.
“With the right coaching, maybe it would have required less energy than I thought to do these interviews. I felt like it was a mountain, and I didn’t have time to climb that mountain. If I had understood that it wasn’t such a big deal, it would have been simpler,” she reflected.
After years as Lagerfeld’s right hand, she was well versed in coordinating large teams, from the specialized workshops at Chanel’s craftsmanship hub Le19M, to the design studio and haute couture workshops on Rue Cambon. But she struggled to set up clear reporting structures.
“The post-Karl period was hard for me because I didn’t want to take his place — I wanted to carry on his work. I could hear him saying, ‘But darling, it’s fine, go for it, you can do it!’ It’s not that I didn’t feel legitimate, but how do you effect change without changing the teams, without hurting anyone?” she mused.
“I was too vague because I find it hard to decide, ‘You do this, you do that.’ I don’t like laying down the law. Maybe I should have given clearer responsibilities and delegated some tasks,” Viard added. “I could have organized things much better. I knew it needed to be done — I just didn’t know how.”
The publication of the book, days before Blazy’s spring 2027 show at the Grand Palais, predictably ruffled some feathers at Chanel.
“During Virginie’s tenure, including after Karl’s death, we pushed the house forward and prepared it for the current phase, so the mission was accomplished — and that, to me, is what matters the most,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS.
“Of course, I understand her bitterness, but I didn’t want to read the book. I will read it for sure, but not right now,” he added.
A New Beginning
Viard said she doesn’t feel like she broke any taboos by writing about her time at the house. “I was mostly writing about myself. I’ve always considered Chanel a marvelous place,” she demurred.
She lovingly describes the rituals of life in the studio and the adrenaline of working on collections. “Nothing was more beautiful than Karl’s sketches,” she marveled. “They told you everything, from the fabric to the attitude. Everything else seems flat in comparison.”
Viard, who doesn’t sketch, sought to perpetuate that dialogue with the workshops through collages. “They really got it and they would bring to it their eye, their technique and their imagination,” she recalled. “That’s what I love: the melding of minds and personalities.”
Now on her own, she has yet to find the same spark, explaining that her love for fashion has always been driven by the people behind it.
She admires designers like Martin Margiela, Nicolas Ghesquière, Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney, whose shows she has attended — whereas Lagerfeld publicly dismissed McCartney after she succeeded him at Chloé.
Viard has also reconnected with Hedi Slimane, whose skinny suits for Dior famously prompted Lagerfeld to lose more than 90 pounds.
“We chat about fashion and life in general,” Viard said, adding that she never saw Slimane as a rival, despite persistent rumors that he would replace her at Chanel.
“I don’t have rivals. It’s not in my character. Besides that, I love him and I understand why people adore Chanel. It’s an extraordinary house, and there are so many codes. There’s room for everyone to tell their own story and I have no problem with that,” she said.
Viard is unsure what comes next. Having designed costumes in the past, she could return to working in theater or film, but she’s also open to another fashion gig.
“But I don’t want to go back to designing tons of collections. I want to try a new approach. Of course I miss it: the atelier, the dresses, the girls — all of it. But I can live without it,” she said. “This has been cathartic. Now, the chapter is closed.”
