Chanel’s fashion head on why prices might keep rising, ‘ultimate luxury’, sustainability, and creating surprises in Hong Kong
- Disruption to global supply chains is likely to cause further increases if Chanel is to continue to offer the best to its customers, Bruno Pavlovsky says
- The question for the next 10 years is to combine growth and sustainability, he explains, a goal towards which Chanel takes a different approach
Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel, has many reasons to be cheerful these days. The French brand has bounced back nicely from a tough pandemic-hit 2020, reflecting the resilience of the luxury sector at a time of global economic uncertainty.
“Product has always been at the heart of our brand,” says Pavlovsky in a video interview. “You can forget about the images and just focus on the product.”
In normal times, we would be meeting Pavlovsky in Paris, where the brand is about to show its Métiers d’Art 2021/22 collection at Le 19m, a new space housing some of the suppliers that Chanel has acquired over the years, such as embroiderer Lesage and feather-maker Lemarié.
Along with its rarefied haute couture collections, the Métiers d’Art range – which in the past has been shown in locations such as Dallas, Edinburgh and Rome – is the pinnacle of Chanel’s commitment to what Pavlovsky calls “ultimate luxury”.
“There’s something very strong and authentic about our product and that makes a big difference in the way we engage our customers,” he says.
“Why is the Métiers d’Art collection always so successful? It’s because our customers feel the connection to the collection and to the know-how.”