Chanel’s new global CEO a welcome change to fashion’s old-hat traditions

She was also the youngest person to ever take on the role and carries the same accolades to her seat at Chanel.

Her hiring reflects efforts amongst big-name fashion brands to diversify their business models. Not only are outlets like Vogue hiring more inclusive models and showcasing a variety of designers, but internal re-structuring is allowing more people to take a stab and top jobs.

Chanel has been praised for their decision to recruit Nair. Both within and outside of the fashion world, observers are drawing on her track record at Unilever – where she led the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) agenda – as evidence that the industry is entering ‘a period of profound change’.

But Chanel remains one of many brands still failing to capture the hearts of Gen Z audiences. Since the death of Karl Lagerfeld in 2019, new head designer Virginie Viard has garnered flat responses from critics.

Prominent fashion commentator ‘Diet Prada’ described one of her collections to be ‘bizarre’ and ‘lacking excitement’. While just this month, Chanel has come under fire for selling an $800 advent calendar containing plastic stickers and empty dust bags.

The Guardian has suggested Nair’s stint could mean the ‘end of [a] colonialist approach’ to fashion.’

Despite public devotion to his ground-breaking designs, many will remember Karl Lagerfeld as a controversial character with a sharp tongue. One who not only dismissed the ‘Me Too’ movement as ‘too much’, but who’s repeatedly disturbing comments on body size sustained fashion’s Eurocentric, ‘fossilised’ status.

Leena Nair’s recruitment indicates that Chanel’s diversification efforts and claims of a ‘more democratic approach’, might just hold some truth. After years of talking an empty talk, it seems fashion is finally walking the walk.