Paris Fashion Week: Chloé reconnects with Parisian bohemia

Chloé unveiled one of the most eagerly awaited shows of Paris Fashion Week this season. The House’s new artistic director, Chemena Kamali, presented her first ready-to-wear collection, reviving her stylistic heritage through the prism of the times.

After three years of creative wandering, Chloé is making a comeback in the hearts of the younger generation. The first collection by Chemena Kamali, appointed in October 2023, was eagerly awaited by the Swiss group Richemont. Richemont sees great potential in the brand’s values of femininity and freedom.

The German designer’s collection is a reinterpretation of the 1970s, the brand’s golden age and the decade at its heart.

In the footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld

For her baptism of fire, Düsseldorf-born Chemena Kamali sought to rekindle the creative flame that had dried up over the last three years, the Maison having suffered an identity crisis with the arrival of Gabriella Hearst as creative director in 2020. In Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo and Hannah MacGibbon, Maison Chloé had succeeded in finding worthy heirs to the feminine, effortless and radiant style proposed by Gaby Aghion, its founder in 1952.

Chloé was one of the Italian and French brands that Chemena Kamali’s parents began distributing across the Rhine in the 1980s, alongside the likes of Versace, Armani and Cacharel.

For the German designer who grew up in the 1990s, the Kaiser – Chloé’s first creative director in the 1960s, where he remained for 20 years – is a national icon and role model. Chemena Kamali reminded Le Figaro that she knew nothing of the famous German designer’s life, so much so that she wanted to follow in his footsteps. After completing a technical training course in Trieste, she made her first attempt to join the House of Chloé…as an intern. Continuing her studies at the prestigious British school Central Saint Martins, she discovered a passion for natural femininity and the 1970s.

After two conclusive experiences with Italian designer Alberta Ferretti, where she mastered the flou technique, Karl Lagerfeld’s unique savoir-faire, and then with her compatriot Strenesse, she joined Clare Waight Keller’s teams at Chloé in 2012.

Indeed, her first collection was conceived as a return to her roots, creating a temporal bridge between Karl Lagerfeld’s 1976-1979 period and the 2000s. “I wanted to return to the House’s original roots and show a sensual Chloé that radiates warmth and positivity,” she declared.