THE STORY OF CHLOÉ

“I think the first time I heard about Chloé was in the late 1980s or early 1990s. My parents wanted us to watch the news on TV every evening, and I remember seeing images of Karl Lagerfeld’s Chloé shows when news programs were covering Fashion Weeks,” Natacha reminisces. The exquisite allure of the fashion house that stayed with the now creative director was, and continues to be, something that penetrates every department store and fashion lover’s wishlist, season after season. So, when she received the call back in early 2017 to succeed former designers Karl Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney, she left her coveted role as right-hand woman to Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton and jumped head first into the new adventure. “Chloé is a democratic brand”, the 38-year-old explains, “in the sense that you don’t have to study fashion to understand it.

I want to look at Chloé for what it has been for not only the last five but past sixty-five years”.

Natacha’s love and understanding of the label are evident, but, what makes her reign here so exciting is that she is unafraid to take Chloé to a new place too, one that is all her own. “As creative director, you have to make choices and decisions all the time. Your ideas become reality. That for me is the most challenging part.” This brings us to the Autumn Winter 2018 offering, which, when it was presented at Paris Fashion Week last March, blew lookers-on away; a 1970s-luxe juggernaut of sophisticated, Parisian cool, those covetable, oversized printed shirts based on an archive print from a Karl Lagerfeld’s 1973 Chloé show. The one piece every woman should have hanging in her wardrobe this autumn? “I would say my opening look – the shirtdress. A resolutely feminine piece, with no button, no zipper. A very Chloé silhouette in all its ease, fluidity and movement.”

Her role requires her to consider the length and breadth of the fashion house’s offering, from leather goods to accessories. Her passion for jewellery is one she is delighted to bring to Chloé. “I love designing jewellery. For me, they are like modern amulets: objects charged with emotions that convey a very personal message. Or like a ready-made, they hold the value that you put in it. I see jewellery as objects that you carry with you that inhabit the wearer. My pieces for Chloé stand for femininity, the cult of female power, magnetism and inner-strength.”

So, with an archive full of history and her own head full of ideas, what spurs her on as we hurtle into a new season? “The most important to me is to design with sincerity”, she says.

Her fairytale at Chloé, it seems, has only just begun.

Keen to take a piece of this instantly iconic collection home? Then shop Chloé in store or online now…

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