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The very cool Virginie Viard
- Karl Lagerfeld’s creative
collaborator at Chanel
and the face of the house’s
new watch, Code Coco –
discusses her career and the
essence of a Chanel woman
with Alice Cavanagh.
Through the
looking glass
IN PROFILE
M
uch is made of the myth behind Karl Lagerfeld. Is his liquid
intake exclusively Diet Coke? What is his true date of birth?
How does he manage to design countless collections a year- clocking in eight at Chanel alone, before you even consider Fendi and
his eponymous line?
Without understating his unique ability and talent, the answer to the
last question is simple: Virginie Viard. In her role as creative studio
director, Viard is what Lagerfeld charmingly calls his “right and his left
hand”. More than just a colleague, she has been a close confidant and
friend since her start in the Chanel studio as an intern in 1987.
Although it’s Lagerfeld in the spotlight, the duo work together side by
side, literally, behind a shared nondescript white desk in the Chanel
studio on the third floor above the famed rue Cambon boutique. This is
where Coco Chanel once presided and her apartment remains intact on
the floor below. A long rectangular room, the studio is lined with large
windows and is flooded with natural light for most of the day; the sun
dances across the floor in the morning, giving a feeling of warmth. It’s
quiet in here now, as this is solely Viard’s domain until Karl arrives
around 5pm – around the same time the teams in the ateliers knock off - to begin his day’s work. “This is why we can do so many collections,
because we fit two days into one,” Viard says with a laugh.
You can pick that Viard is a Chanel woman from 15 metres away. She
has a shaggy brunette mane and bangs and the aura of having an innate
understanding of style, without any whiff of fashion victimhood. Today
she’s wearing velour pants tucked into pointy boots and a hot pink
‘Gabrielle Chanel’ sweater from the autumn/winter ’17/’18 collection. The
look is as audacious as it is irreverent, in that way Chanel does so well.
As a conversationalist, Viard is engaging and relaxed, not to mention
modest to the point of disbelief. “I don’t do so much,” she says, despite
admitting that in addition to cramming two days into one, she oversees
the eight collections a year, along with all of the casting and campaigns.
Explaining what she looks for in casting a Chanel woman, she could
well be describing herself. “It’s not about the physical, although they are
more brunette than blonde. It’s more about personality, education,
acertain energy.”
Viard recruited a band of such women to promote the new Chanel
watch, the Code Coco, a narrow timepiece that resembles an elegant
cuff. The design takes its cue from Chanel’s cult 2.55 bag: its band is
quilted and the bag’s clasp appears on the face of the watch in miniature
version. Nine Chanel muses – the likes of Alice Dellal, Anna Mouglalis
and Stella Tennant – along with Chanel staffers, including the global
creative designer for make-up and colour, Lucia Pica, feature in the look
book, posing like a coven of chic Parisian women. In a first, Viard found
herself in front of the camera as well, a muse and mascot for the new
accessory. Although she’s rarely involved in the watches side of the
business, she never fails to be seduced by the idea of reworking the
Chanel codes set so long ago by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. “When I work,
I have two people in mind: Karl and Coco,” she says emphatically,
adding: “Two very different people, but both so inspiring.”
Viard grew up in Lyon, where her grandparents had established
themselves in the fabric business. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to
do, but I knew it was fashion, because I always loved clothes. A lot of
women in my family loved fashion,” she says. When she was in her early
20s, a family acquaintance who knew Lagerfeld well promised to make
an introduction. The meeting went well and she was hired by Chanel
asan intern. “It was a much smaller team then, but we were in this same
studio,” she says, gesturing about. “When I started, I worked closely
with jewellery designer Victoria de Castellane. Gilles Dufour was the
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