A Dialogue with Bruno Pavlovsky: On the Inheritance of Chanel’s Classics

During Paris Fashion Week in Autumn/Winter 2024, which just ended earlier this month, Chanel’s new series, headed by Virginie Viard, creative director of the Brand Boutique Department, ranked second on the list of Vogue Runway’s top 10 shows with the highest hit rate, up six places from the previous season.

Both industry insiders and comments on social media around the world agree that this is the best series Virginie has created since he took over as Chanel. Starting from the fashionable and eye-catching hat items, this series perfectly presents the legendary nature of the brand, classic elements, advanced tailoring techniques and the spirit of the times of Ms. Chanel in a modern and modern design language.

Under a series of highly acclaimed new styles and new colors, Chanel’s unchanging classic heritage and a retrospective of the brand’s core values. All this can be seen in the classic handbag advertising blockbuster by Hollywood actress Penelope Cruz and Brad Pitt.

The plot of this blockbuster is adapted from the film “A Man and A Woman” (translated as “A Man and A Woman” in Chinese) directed by Claude Lelouch, the director at the end of the French New Wave film, which depicts the heroine and heroine in the coastal city of Deauville.

Fashionista

It is no coincidence that this location of Duvier is, in a sense, the starting point of the Chanel brand. As early as 1913, Gabrielle Chanel, who started out as a hat maker, opened her first Chanel boutique here. In addition, Anouk Aimée, the heroine of the movie “A Man and a Woman”, also carries a Chanel bag in the movie, and this bag is not a prop for the cast, but a fashionable item that the actors like to match most in their daily life.

Pitt and Cruz, the two Oscar-winning actresses, reinterpreted the classic part of the movie. The brand opened the big show with this movie to lead the audience back to the Duvier of that year. “This season is first and foremost a tribute to Duvier, where Chanel originated,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel’s global boutique division and president of Chanel SAS, before the show. “We consider the fashion show to be an inspirational projection of the future. This season presents Duvier from a Virginie perspective-it’s not just going back to the past, it’s not nostalgia, it’s borrowing elements from the past to imagine the future.”

Yesterday is the future.

On the Inheritance of Chanel’s Classics

Unlike other high-end fashion houses that vigorously promote the brand’s new product design, Chanel is returning to the classic this season, vigorously promoting the handbag category through advertising blockbusters and shocking show experiences, and doing the opposite among a large number of competitors, further highlighting the long-term value of its classic flip handbags.

“We felt it was time to refocus our attention on Chanel’s iconic flap handbags and let customers, fans and the media know more about the unique status of our classic bag products and our approach to leather products,” Pavlovsky said of the focus of the commercial blockbuster.

“We create many new items in each new collection, but the only brand asset that always exists is our classic handbag iconic handbag. No matter what improvements we make in shape, size, finish and materials, you know their core values are the same.”

There is no doubt about the classic and fashion of Chanel handbags and their top position in the highly competitive luxury bag market. This is closely related to the efforts made by the creative directors of each generation of the brand in the classic inheritance and brand equity innovation. Almost every Chanel handbag is built with the language of fashion.

“A Chanel handbag is first and foremost a fashion accessory. Every time we show something about a handbag to the public, it starts with a fashion show,” says Pavlovsky-which, in his view, is where Chanel really differentiates itself from other luxury brands.
Most of the classic handbags have been launched since the Chanel lady’s time. Through the creation of the late legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld, it has deepened its connection with the fashion context, and it continues to be refreshed and reshaped by Virginie. “Chanel is a brand made up of many iconic products, which makes the brand’s status so unique, in particular, it is a rare job to build a handbag product to today’s classic positioning.”

The Pavlovsky also emphasizes the uniqueness and consistency of the process of making Chanel handbags. He compared the process of making a handbag to making a high-end garment, and especially mentioned the process of “sewing-turning”: each handbag is turned inside and outside, assembled on a flat table and then gradually formed.

Among them, the “bag in bag” process constructs the outline and depth of the bag body. Experienced craftsmen first assemble the inner bag, then the outer bag, and finally assemble and sew the two bags and turn them inside and outside. In addition, Pavlovsky said that in the 100-year history of the brand, although Chanel has improved the working environment of craftsmen, it has not changed the handicraft technology of any handbags, which is also an important measure to inherit the classics.

The Art of Pricing

It is also the key to maintaining quality.

For a long time, price increases have been a topic surrounding Chanel in consumer circles. Pavlovsky was outspoken and joked, “In fact, most of our competitors have increased prices far more than ours in recent years, but whenever people talk about price increases, everyone is talking about Chanel. It means that Chanel is a leader in the industry.”

The pricing strategy of luxury brands is one of the most important business propositions. A good price strategy should not only highlight the brand value, but also balance the market demand and the maintenance and guidance of consumer awareness. Pavlovsky said that Chanel’s prices have always been guided by the brand’s extreme pursuit of the highest quality products, “When I say the highest quality products, I mean the best raw materials, the top craftsmen and the most sustainable production process, etc.. Because, we really put a lot of effort into being able to always maintain good quality products.”

Chanel raised prices once in 2023 due to factors such as rising raw material prices caused by global inflation, and will raise prices on some products for the same reason this year. However, Pavlovsky denied some analysis on the market that Chanel wants to improve its brand positioning through price increases. “Our price increase is not a repositioning of the brand, but more to ensure that we can be consistent with our brand positioning.”

After the big show in Shenzhen

Welcome the first Chanel personal retrospective exhibition

As early as the end of last year, Chanel executives warned that 2024 would be a more “difficult” year in the face of the global economic slowdown and the slowdown in the growth of the luxury industry. As one of the most important markets for brands, China’s performance will also become particularly critical.

In order to close the connection with local consumers and highlight the importance the brand attaches to the market, Chanel moved the 2023/24 early spring vacation series released by the brand in Los Angeles to Shenzhen in November last year, and held a large-scale publicity campaign for it.

Earlier this year, Chanel announced that it will join hands with the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art and the Palais de Galera, a fashion museum in Paris, to present the first retrospective exhibition of Gabriel Chanel’s works in China, which will be held from July 12 to November 24, 2024. This exhibition is expected to display more than 200 works from the collections and private collections of the Gallera Palace, Chanel Brand Heritage Department and other international art institutions.

(Source: VOGUE Business)