Chloé
Chloé is a Parisian fashion house, founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion. Worldwide supplied, the brand boasts monobrand stores in the most exclusive streets of fashion capitals, among which Paris, London, Milan, New York, Shanghai and Dubai. Nowadays young actresses, as Kirsten Dunst, Natalie Portman and Lou Doillon, wear the items of the brand, which for more than 50 years has kept an unchanged imaginary of romantic and sophisticated woman.
The birth of Chloé
In 1952 Gaby Aghion, Parisian fashion designer of Egyptian origins and with a soul divided between bohémien and dark style, refused the formality and the strictness of ’50s fashion and created a new idea of elegance, by introducing softer silhouettes and garments made by precious materials: in this way she contributed to the birth of luxury prêt-à-porter.
The debut
In 1956 Gaby Aghion and her business partner Jacque Lenoir debuted with their first collection at Café de Flore, crucial artistic and cultural center of Paris in those years. Chloé, the name chosen because of its feminine appeal and its sound easy to remember, perfectly embodied the new Parisian feminine mind, young and modern. So the brand acquired popularity and the partners, in order to best represent the heart of the modernity of times, inaugurated a strategy which became the distinctive point of the fashion house: the collaborations with young talents to design collections.
In 1966 Karl Lagerfeld became Creative Director, making Chloé one of the main brand in the ’70s. At that time many celebrities wore its items, such as Brigitte Bardot, Jackie Kennedy, Maria Callas and Grace Kelly. During the ’80s many young and talented designers succeeded at the head of the maison, giving it fame and value.
In 1985, after the fashion house was acquired by Richemont Group, the fame of Chloé spread worldwide. In 1997 Stella McCartney, English fashion designer and daughter to Beatle Paul McCartney, revamped Chloé by a romantic style, characterized by a mix of vintage lingerie, tailoring cuts and elegant items addressed to a young public.
The development of the brand
Then, in 2001, Phoebe Philo took the reins of the brand, keeping its original style and the features of the fashion designer. Under her Creative Direction, the brand continued in the renovation started under McCartney and stood out with a style defined ‘bobo’ by fashion editors and which mixed bohémien and bon ton features: in this way, it gave life to market trends, such as the famous Paddington bag, baby-doll dresses and leather sandals with wooden wedge heels.
In 2006 a new fashion designer was appointed Creative Director: he was the Swedish Paulo Melim Andersson. In March 2008 he was replaced by Hannah MacGibbon, who had the task to revamp the brand, after some difficult seasons.
MacGibbon decided to propose again the original features of the brand, characterized by its romantic and bohémien style, and to take distance from rigid looks of the last collections: so he expressed a more modern and elegant style, made of clear cuts, high waists and floral prints. Her style contributed to create a ne femininity and a new idea of luxury, which identified fashion in the 2010s.
Recent facts
In June 2011 Clare Waight Keller, already fashion designer for Pringle of Scotland, was appointed Creative Director. In 2017, when Keller left Chloé Creative Direction, she was replaced by Natacha Ramsay-Levi, who at the time was responsible for Louis Vuitton womenswear ready-to-wear and who kept her role at the maison for three years.
In 2021 Creative Direction was entrusted to Gabriela Hearst, who since 2015 had managed her own brand, so promising that attracted an investor as LVMH. Fashion designer impressed to the fashion house the same attention to sustainability reserved to her own label. Attention to the choice of quality materials, technological progress and invention of innovative fabrics earned the maison, in 2021, the B Corp certification, which certifies the adoption of practices addressed to guarantee employees’ well-being and an environmental impact as low as possible.
In July 2023 Chloé confirmed some rumors which said that Hearst would leave Creative Direction. So it’s the future: her last collection is expected at Paris Fashion Week in September 2023.
On October 9th 2023, Chloé unveiled the face of her new creative director. Chemena Kamali will debut in January 2024 in Paris with a pre-collection, and then present the fall/winter 2024 collection at the Paris Fashion Week of the following month.
In December 2023, Richemont announces that Riccardo Bellini has chosen not to continue as President and CEO of Chloé, after four years in the position.
The decision to enable the new Creative Director to successfully complete his mission and settle in was made in close consultation with the Group.
As President and CEO of Chloé, Riccardo has successfully elevated and transformed the brand during a period of growth and substantial results in terms of both finances and creativity. He oversaw the creation of Chloé’s first Fall 24 collection and the appointment of Chemena Kamali as the brand’s new Creative Director, setting the stage for further success. As a pioneer in sustainability, Riccardo’s vision and leadership played a crucial role in turning Chloé into a company with a purpose.
Riccardo Bellini commented:
“I am proud of four amazing years of business growth, transformation and successful results, the continuous elevation of the Maison and the leadership and pioneering role that Chloé plays today in sustainability. I am thankful to my incredible teams and to Richemont for the great support and partnership throughout. Today Chloé has the solid foundations to continue to grow bigger and stronger and I am fully confident that Chemena Kamali as new Creative Director will unlock the full potential of the Maison. I wish her and the entire Chloé team all the best future success.”
Laurent Malecaze will take over as President and CEO of Chloé upon Riccardo Bellini’s departure at the end of December 2023. Laurent comes from Dunhill, where he spent the previous two years leading the company through a successful turnaround. Prior to joining Richemont, he was the head of AZ Factory, which he founded alongside Alber Elbaz. Before that, he spent several years working as a strategic consultant at Bain & Company before taking the helm of the luxury multi-brand retailer The Webster in New York.
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