There are fashion collectors, then there are fashion obsessives. So, when Chemena Kamali revealed to Vogue that she owned a collection of around 650 blouses (many from Chloe, and many regularly worn), Kamali shifts into the obsessive ‘connoisseur’ category. Yet given that she fell in love with the free-spirited woman the brand talks to back in her student years in Dusseldorf, (pounding the pavement for her first internship in Paris) her collection is akin to a life study.
Now Kamali, aged 42, has taken the creative helm at Chloe having worked in the design studio for no less than three artistic directors – Phoebe Philo (2001-2006), Hannah McGibbon (2008-2011) and Claire Waight Keller (2011-2017) – and it seems the house and its codes are embedded in her psyche. A period working for Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent was the only hiatus. Indeed, the energetic, thoughtful long haired, long legged, mother of two personifies the easy-going stance of Chloe, an aspect she is determined to nurture long after the boho-chic SEO clickbait has waned.
Creative Director Chemena Kamali
Press
At the brand HQ on the Avenue Percier in the 8e, a skip from the Hotel Bristol (where Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney once hosted the wildest informal post show parties), Kamali is clearly at home. In the reception there is a wall of fame – black and white portraits of her predecessors including baby-faced Stella and Phoebe who took the reins at the brand just a few years after leaving Central St Martins. Vests with saucy banana prints! Sexy plunging cheesecloth shirts and wide faded flares! Those Brit designers put the revs and the girl power into Chloe and turned the tables on the future of the Richemont owned business.
Yet the early 21st century was utterly different to today’s confusing, overflowing fashion scene. We now desire ‘more’ delight, ‘more’ purpose and a deeper emotional bond with the clothes we invest in. To that end, Kamali has dug deep into Chloe, back to Gaby Aghion’s founding of the label in 1952, and into the pioneering work of Karl Lagerfeld, who was at the helm from 1974-1983. The late 70s period is a fertile one with pleat skirts, hand painted silks and waterfall blouses that a coterie of liberated women world over – Jerry Hall, Jane Birkin, Linda McCartney - adored.
Her debut AW 24 line up is attractive because it appears intuitive and Kamali talks a lot about ‘sincerity’ and ‘feeling.’ Through the dolman sleeved sweeping coats and gabardine trenches; in the slim waisted tweed jackets; leggy crease front trousers; chiffon poet blouses and thigh high boots in those trademark soft sand and dune shades, here are great finds for a woman who is on the move and is writing her own life chapters. But perhaps most poignantly, after what seems aeons of exaggerated tailoring, the designs fulfil a yearning for the soft (but not passive) and feminine.
Kamali is injecting her vision with a good dose of humour writ large in phallic banana symbol necklaces, in the squishy Bracelet Hobo bag; in the iconic 70s wedges inscribed with graffiti and in superhero fringed leather capes and she’s framing it in a spontaneous, uncontrived way. Chloe OG models such as Jessica Miller, Doutzen Kroes, Natalia Vodianova, Liya Kibede are back in the campaign alongside boho pin ups Sienna Miller, Suki Waterhouse and new gen faces like Suvi Riggs Koponen. The images of these beauties by Sam Rock, all wind blow hair, chiffon and smooth leather on the Pont Alexandre, or by the Tour Eiffel, capture the thrill of the frisson and the mythic allure of Paris in one swoop. In the Rue St Honore boutique, Kamali has also instigated a showcase of female artists under the Chloe Arts umbrella. Good loving, good style, good wine & food, good adventures – the new era Chloe tempts with an irresistible package. Let the conversion start here.
