Chloé Names Natacha Ramsay-Levi as Creative Director

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/fashion/chloe-natacha-ramsay-levi.html

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The Chloé girl is dead; long live the Chloé girl. On Friday, the French brand, owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont, named Natacha Ramsay-Levi as its creative director, responsible for all ready-to-wear, accessories and leather goods.

Though Ms. Ramsay-Levi is a relative unknown, having toiled for the last 15 years as a designer under Nicolas Ghesquière, both in his role as artistic director of Louis Vuitton and previously at Balenciaga, on one level the appointment is not a surprise.

Ms. Ramsay-Levi’s name had surfaced in January as a potential successor to Clare Waight Keller, who confirmed that month that she was leaving the brand and who held her last show for Chloé during the recent Paris Fashion Week. Reuters had earlier reported that sources said Ms. Ramsay-Levi would get the job.

On another level, however, the choice is unexpected.

After all, Ms. Ramsay-Levi has been steeped in the school of Ghesquière, trained in an aesthetic that is defined by a resolute modernism and futuristic cool — and hence almost diametrically opposed to the boho-girl-running-through-Provence aura traditionally associated with Chloé. (There is a reason the brand’s human doppelgänger is always referred to as a “girl.”)

So does the advent of Ms. Ramsay-Levi signal an about-face for the brand?

According to Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye, chief executive of Chloé, “When we make this kind of a choice, we don’t look at what someone has done, but what they’ve learned and who they are.”

“I am not signing the Vuitton aesthetic or creative direction,” he continued, speaking by phone from Paris. “I am signing a great talent. Natacha was trained in the couture ateliers, and she perfectly embodies the spirit of Chloé. She is daring, charismatic, joyful, confident, and knows where she’s going.”

He sounded a bit as if he was describing a perfume. Still, having spent 13 years of his career before fashion working with Disney, Mr. de la Bourdonnaye said, he learned that “the personality of a creator is the best indication of what they will create.”

As to that personality — according to a profile in German Interview, Ms. Ramsay-Levi, who is in her thirties and was born in Paris, began her career because, she said, she “really wanted to be a Balenciaga girl: young, cool, androgynous.” She began working for Mr. Ghesquière as an intern in 2002, and stayed by his side until the Chloé offer came along. “She is very loyal,” Mr. de la Bourdonnaye said.

She has a son with the founder of Purple magazine, Olivier Zahm, who is famous for his flouting of social and sexual convention, and she often posts photos of the boy on Instagram, as well as architectural and textural snaps taken on holiday.

Indeed, judging by her Instagram account, Ms. Ramsay-Levi has a taste for exotic locales, foliage and form, both curving and linear. Her personal style is edgier and more avant-garde than that of her immediate predecessor, Ms. Waight Keller; her connection to French youth culture is more akin to that of, say, Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga and Vetements, or Hedi Slimane. Both were disruptive forces that created among the loudest buzz for their brands in recent seasons.

Mr. Ghesquière, the designer who knows her best, said Ms. Ramsay-Levi “has and will have a voice and a strong point of view in the future of fashion.”

Still, Ms. Ramsay-Levi was not on Mr. de la Bourdonnaye’s radar when he first began looking for Ms. Waight Keller’s successor. While he cast a broad net, many of the candidates had already proved themselves as designers at different brands. A headhunter brought Ms. Ramsay-Levi to his attention, and he decided to take a risk.

“It’s like a marriage,” Mr. de la Bourdonnaye said of choosing a new creative director. “There’s always a certain level of uncertainty. And you know there will be surprises, but I think they will be good surprises.”

As to how she sees Chloé, Ms. Ramsay-Levi said in a statement, “I am very proud to join a house founded by a woman to dress women. I want to create fashion that enhances the personality of the woman who wears it, fashion that creates a character and an attitude, without ever imposing a ‘look.’”

In any case, she inherits a maison that has managed to stay remarkably consistent in message despite being helmed by a surprising number of different designers. And she does so at a time when, according to Mr. de la Bourdonnaye, Chloé is expanding. Though Richemont does not break out the annual results of individual brands and is primarily a watch and jewelry group, it is investing: 10 new stores are planned in the next 12 months, including openings in Singapore and London.

Ms. Ramsay-Levi will be the eighth creative director at Chloé since it was founded by Gaby Aghion in 1952 (the eighth, that is to say, not including Ms. Aghion), and the first Frenchwoman since Martine Sitbon in 1992. She joins a long line of very talented names, including Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo and Ms. Keller — who, after a six-year term, was the longest-serving designer at Chloé aside from Mr. Lagerfeld.

“When you have a strong brand, it’s always the same story; each designer just writes another chapter,” Mr. de la Bourdonnaye said.

Ms. Ramsay-Levi’s chapter begins April 3. Her first show will take place next autumn during Paris Fashion Week.