No—Jeremy Scott did not become Chanel’s creative director. Chanel appointed Matthieu Blazy. The appointment was reported on 12 December 2024, and the house’s own announcement names Blazy as Artistic Director of Fashion Activities, responsible for haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories. The succession question in this article’s original June 2024 coverage is settled; it is not a vacancy still waiting to be filled.
I still find the Scott-versus-Chanel idea fascinating as a design argument. Put a cartoon-covered hoodie beside a restrained Chanel runway and there is plenty to talk about. But an exciting imagined pairing is not an appointment. Here is the actual timeline, what Scott brought to Moschino, and the distinction I would make when reading those old succession stories.
What happened: the dates that settle the Chanel question
- October 2013: Scott began his role as Moschino’s creative director, according to parent company Aeffe.
- 20 March 2023: Aeffe announced his departure. Its release said Moschino’s design office would take over the creative direction from April.
- June 2024: Chanel confirmed Virginie Viard’s departure. She had succeeded Karl Lagerfeld in 2019; no replacement was announced immediately.
- 12 December 2024: the Blazy appointment was reported. Chanel’s announcement said he would join in 2025 and specified the collections under his remit.
The records are straightforward: Aeffe’s dated Moschino release, AP’s contemporaneous report of Viard’s departure, Vogue’s 12 December appointment report, and Chanel’s own announcement. None of those records announces Scott as Chanel’s incoming director. A discussion of who might suit a house is different from a documented offer, negotiation or appointment.
Virginie Viard: the handover, not a frozen-in-time vacancy
Viard’s five-year leadership of Chanel’s fashion collections followed years working alongside Lagerfeld. Her departure made the house’s next creative direction a genuine news question in June 2024. That historical uncertainty should not survive as present-tense news after the successor has been announced.
I would not reduce the choice to “classic Chanel” versus “fun clothes”. In the runway image below, the repeated pale looks and oversized double-C setting give the presentation a clear visual rhythm. A new director has more to handle than a recognisable motif: the appointment covers several collection categories, not just one photogenic show.
What I love about Scott’s Moschino vocabulary
Scott’s Moschino period ran from October 2013 to the March 2023 departure announcement. The CFDA’s retrospective points to Barbie-inspired collections and McDonald’s-branded designs as examples of his pop-culture approach. Those are specific references—not a reason to assume every colourful outfit pictured here belongs to a particular collection.
What grabs me in the archive imagery is the refusal to whisper. The hoodie near the top uses clashing cartoon faces and blocks of pink, green and orange; the backstage photograph below pushes that energy into a flower-covered silhouette and an oversized spray-can prop. Beside it, gold decoration and a tulle skirt collide with a leather-jacket shape. That is a much sharper visual statement than simply calling the clothes “bold”.
I love that sense of play. The black-and-gold event looks above also show why “cartoons and fast food” is too small a box for the imagery: dense decoration and coordinated silhouettes can do the talking without a cartoon character in sight. My preference is for the pieces where the shape and decoration work together, rather than a familiar reference doing all the work.
My verdict on the imagined Scott–Chanel pairing
It is a brilliant conversation starter, not an alternative history I would pass off as news. I would judge any such pairing on the clothes and the breadth of the creative brief—not on how surprising the designer’s name looks in a headline.
| What I would judge | What the archive lets us see | Where I draw the line |
|---|---|---|
| Visual impact | Cartoon graphics, saturated colour and oversized props make the Scott imagery immediately arresting. | Attention is not proof that a designer was offered the Chanel job. |
| Design beyond the reference | The gold decoration, shaped jackets and tulle give me more to examine than a logo alone. | I would want construction and silhouette to remain interesting once the joke is familiar. |
| The actual Chanel brief | The house’s appointment announcement covers haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories. | One memorable look cannot demonstrate how an imagined appointment would work across all three. |
That is why I would keep the pleasure of the comparison and ditch the breathless prediction. Scott’s theatricality gives this archive its spark. It does not tell us what he would have designed for Chanel, how clients would have responded, or what happened inside the appointment process.
Who Chanel actually appointed
Chanel chose Matthieu Blazy. The house’s announcement gives the role and its scope explicitly; the December 2024 reporting supplies the dated news context. This was a fashion-collections appointment covering couture, ready-to-wear and accessories—not an announcement that Scott was joining, and not a company-wide chief executive appointment.
For the wider background, our Chanel history guide follows the house beyond this single succession question. For regional fashion coverage alongside the international houses, explore our Lifestyle section.
The takeaway: enjoy the fashion argument, keep the history straight
My answer is simple: enjoy Scott’s exuberance on its own terms. The colour, humour and elaborate event dressing in these pictures deserve a closer look without borrowing a Chanel title he did not receive. Blazy’s appointment is the factual outcome; the imagined contrast remains an editorial discussion, not a developing appointment story.
Updated 21 October 2026: the earlier succession speculation has been reframed around the confirmed appointment. Archive photographs are retained as illustration; they do not document Scott holding a Chanel role.
