New creative director of Chloé fashion house: Who is Chemena Kamali?

Chloé Fashion House announced that designer Chemena Kamali will be the creative director after Gabriela Hearst left the brand. This appointment did not come as a shock to the wolves of the fashion world because, according to rumors, Kamali was especially preferred because she was a designer working alongside Phoebe Philo.

Chloé is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion. During the next year of 1953 Aghion joined forces with Jacques Lenoir, formally managing the business side of the brand, allowing Aghion to purely pursue the creative growth of Chloé. Its headquarters are located in Paris. The house is owned by luxury brands holding company Richemont Group. Chloé has been worn by many celebrities, including Marion Cotillard, Sienna Miller, Madonna, January Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, Cameron Diaz, Emma Stone, Clémence Poésy and Katie Holmes. The brand is characterized by a youthful and bohemian aesthetic, and has produced several successful fragrances. As of October 2023, Chemena Kamali is its creative director.

Born in Germany in 1981, Central Saint Martins graduate Kamali started her career working alongside Phoebe Philo at Chloé. After a brief experience at Lanvin, she served as design director of Clare Waight Keller from 2013 to 2016. Kamali left that position in 2016 to join Anthony Vaccarello's team at Saint Laurent as director of women's ready-to-wear.

The New York Times and Vogue also drew attention

The biggest feature of Chloé is that its creative directors (except Karl Lagerfeld, who works with its founder Gaby Aghion, and plays a major role in the growth and management of the brand) have always been women. This appointment was a move that supported the employment of women in the "majority of white men", which has attracted attention, especially in the recent creative director appointments of luxury brands, and has been discussed in publications such as Vogue and the New York Times. As for Kamali's release, we will have to wait a bit. The designer will present her first pre-collection for Chloé in Paris in January, followed by autumn/winter 2024 at Paris Fashion Week in February.