Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS, put the success of Friday’s announcement that Chanel has acquired the heritage shirtmaker Charvet, squarely on the shoulders of Chanel artistic director Matthieu Blazy and the almost immediate rapport that Blazy kindled with siblings Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude Colban, who today run Charvet, bought by their father in the 1960s.
There’s major romance in this Chanel buys Charvet business story, spring-boarded by the intense love affair between Coco Chanel and Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel. As a stand-alone human relationship story between the couple, the facts are cinematic.
Like Anne before him, Matthieu Blazy knew nothing of this love story until he began going throughn the Chanel archives. Armed with the knowledge that Coco Chanel bought shirts for her lover Boy Capel at Charvet — and probably borrowed them regularly — Blazy decided to introduce himself to the famous shirtmaker, then owned by siblings Anne-Marie and Jean-Claude Colban.
In 2018, Margot Robbie launched Chanel’s first Coco Neige campaign, which was Chanel's first official subbrand for ski and après-ski wear. Featured in these images by the now-passed creative director Karl Lagerfeld himself, Robbie spoke very fondly about the experience of working with the head of the House of Chanel from 1983-2019.
AOC visited the the original campaign after posting the new Chanel Coco Neige 2024/5 campaign, lensed by Juergen Teller with model Loli Bahia. Asking a question of our precious AI about Coco Chanel and if she actually skied, Anne fell down a rabbit hole that has reoriented her entire thinking about Chanel.
Her interest in skiing was not only a personal pastime but also a social event that allowed her to mingle with the elite, continually fueling her creative vision in the process and also captivating new clients for her brand.
Coco had a profound and enduring level of help from her friend, financier, collaborator and lover Arthur "Boy" Capel in penetrating this elite St. Moritz society.
