Two hours before Chanel’s haute couture show, the air around the Grand Palais is thick with anticipation. Backstage, hundreds of people move with clockwork precision, while at the Grand Cafe nearby, Bruno Pavlovsky sits improbably calm. He has lived through countless shows, yet the moment still stirs him.
“It’s always a big moment,” Chanel’s president of fashion says with quiet satisfaction. “This collection is amazing, a powerful collection. Couture is always special at Chanel, it’s in our DNA.”
For Pavlovsky, couture is not spectacle but essence – a reminder of what luxury means when freed from compromise. “In the execution everything has changed,” he says of the evolving landscape, “but the philosophy, the strategy, it’s always the same. Haute couture is pure design. There are no constraints. The designer delivers what they feel is most appropriate, the most impactful. It’s about creating something unique for clients.”
He speaks less like a businessman than a custodian of culture. “When you talk with the atelier, there are no limits. It’s about the designer and the artisans capable of delivering. It’s a very unique experience.”
Even though the show unfolds in Paris, couture follows the clients. “For couture, it is not the clients who are coming to Paris. Some of them are, but we are travelling everywhere. Starting next week, we go more or less everywhere,” he says.
Pavlovsky is famously steady, even when the luxury market falters. He shrugs at talk of slowdown. “I am always optimistic. In 2020, it was a big question mark,” he says of the pandemic. “Afterwards, there was an acceleration of growth and for us at Chanel, we more than doubled the business in three to four years. Quite a lot of new clients joined the boutique for the very first time.”
For him, a cooling market is healthy. “You cannot be at double-digit growth forever. Sometimes it’s good to see some adjustment. It obliges the brand to focus on the fundamentals and reimagine what the client experience must become.”
It’s that combination of pragmatism, optimism and enthusiasm that defines him. “When you offer the best to the client, when there is purpose in the collection, storytelling, when the products are well executed, when the orchestration is super well done … we can do amazing things.”
Couture, he insists, is always a tightrope walk between preservation and innovation. “This collection was a mix of both. You see embroidery, new fabrics, new ways of putting things together. There is space for both. But for me, it’s more about doing something outstanding.”
He repeats “unique” like a mantra, not a buzzword. Couture must resist sameness. And when asked about risk, he looks inward rather than outward. “The risk is always about scale. Our products are sophisticated. We are expensive, but we’re expensive because there is a lot of know-how in what we are doing. On top of that, our sustainability engagements make our product even more expensive.”
He acknowledges Chanel’s prices put it out of reach for most, yet he frames the brand as offering “a dream for all”. Recent campaigns with Jennie Kim and Dua Lipa play to that aspiration. “Every time we can engage and offer something amazing to all, it is important. We have to be realistic. Not everyone can access our product. The brand is the incarnation of ultimate luxury, so we must balance between offering a dream for everyone and knowing it is a dream for very few.”
What excites him most is talent – both in front of the camera and at the workbench. Pavlovsky is animated when talking about the new generation of craftspeople entering the métiers.
“Twenty years ago, 25 years ago, we were asking how to engage a new generation of craftspeople. It was challenging. Now when you visit [our ateliers] at Verneuil or 19M, the next generation is there. They’re super-excited and learning. We are attracting new talents. Now we need to give them a sense of comfort about their career.”
At Chanel’s ateliers, the transmission of knowledge is tangible. During a visit to the Verneuil-en-Halatte workshop, where the iconic handbags are made, I saw artisans with 40 years’ experience alongside those just starting. “The 11.12 is the most difficult bag to manufacture. When you are quite young, your first results are catastrophic. I have tried, it’s super-difficult,” he says with a laugh. The pride in his voice is unmistakable. It’s not about handbags. It’s about continuity, a craft passed hand to hand.
That continuity extends to care. The brand’s Chanel & Moi service restores old bags, unusual for a house that thrives on new sales. “Quite often, the bag is about transmission. You want to offer it to your daughter, your granddaughter, your friend. Sometimes it’s fixing small problems under guarantee. Sometimes it’s restoration. It’s a very special work.”
Another quiet battle Pavlovsky wages is keeping Chanel’s suppliers alive. Over the past few years, the maison has acquired or taken stakes in a string of specialist ateliers in France and Italy. Beyond finance, it is about safeguarding the future. “We want to continue to manufacture our product in 20 or 30 years. Covid was very difficult for most of our Italian suppliers. We realised that if we want them to continue to exist, we have to be with them. In 20 years, the challenge will not be to sell, it will be to manufacture. It’s not about control, it’s about ensuring these people continue to exist.”
If he sounds like a guardian of continuity, he is just as animated about change. Chanel enters a new era in October, with Matthieu Blazy presenting his first collection. Pavlovsky beams. “With Matthieu, we’re opening a new era. What is special with Chanel is it’s only the fourth time in the lifetime of the brand that we have a new designer. I love the guy. He’s super-talented, he loves the product, loves the craft, loves fashion. Only good vibes.”
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