Bruno Pavlovsky is president of fashion at Chanel. He oversees the French house’s crown jewel, the ready-to-wear and haute couture businesses on which the codes of the house are based.
Pavlovsky told BoF, “Today, Chanel is perhaps one of the most successful business models based on creativity. We let these creative people go to the next step in designing the collection. And, on the other hand, we maximise the impact of the collection at every point of sale.”
It is Pavlovsky’s responsibility to create the commercial environments that allowed Karl Lagerfeld ’s and now Virginie Viard 's designs be such successful brand identifiers, saying, “It’s about how we play all of these good points, good things, good energies to recreate something special at the boutique level. This is the base of this business model.” In 2018, the fashion house released financial results for the first time, reporting revenue of almost $10 billion for fiscal year 2017.
Pavlovsky also embarked upon a steady buy up of many of Chanel’s specialist suppliers, including Lesage, Dreseus, Lemarié, Maison Michel and Barrie Knitwear under the umbrella Parrafection. “For us at Chanel, it’s a guarantee that this creativity can continue to exist for the next 50 years.”
In 2017, he announced that Chanel would launch a Gallery Gabrielle Chanel exhibition space in the ground floor of the Palais Galliera fashion museum. Under Pavlovsky’s guidance, guaranteeing creativity is tantamount to guaranteeing Chanel’s place at the very peak of industry.
