Famous for his clothes, and a small ego

Matthieu Blazy had the whole fashion world watching his every move as he made his debut at Chanel yesterday.

- ADAM PLOWRIGHT

But who is the 41-year-old designer?

The Franco-Belgian is relatively low-key compared to the celebrity couturiers he beat to the job — and was poached by Chanel after a highly successful three-year stint at Kering-owned Bottega Veneta.

The new job is a massive promotion and career boost, taking him from a medium-sized Italian label to the world’s second-largest luxury clothing brand with sales of around $20 billion annually.

Said to have impressed with his in-depth presentations during the recruitment process at Chanel, he embodies “a new generation with sincere humility”, Chanel fashion president Bruno Pavlovsky said of Mr Blazy when his nomination was announced last December.

The compliment about his character underlined one of his perceived qualities: the lack of a huge ego in an industry famed for them.

That is seen as a good fit for Chanel’s discreet family owners, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer.

They were looking for a loyal figure to become only the fourth creative director in the brand's fabled history.

“Chanel is a privately owned family house,” Serge Carreira, a fashion expert at the Sciences Po university in Paris, told AFP after the nomination of Mr Blazy.

“The brand can take a long-term approach and allow time for things.”