Upheaval at Chanel, And a Reality Show No One Asked For

Plus soothing JEWELS and news from The Traitors

The big breaking news of yesterday came courtesy of Chanel, which announced that Karl Lagerfeld’s handpicked successor, Virginie Viard, is stepping down from the house. Or, more likely, “stepping down.”

Viard’s tenure at Chanel has been rocky, at least aesthetically; rarely is a designer-actor partnership met with more groans from the red-carpet-watching public than when it’s Chanel¹². Ambassadors like Margaret Qualley, Riley Keough, Kristen Stewart, and Margot Robbie — blissfully short though that one was — have too often looked unmoored at best and ridiculous at worst in Viard’s clothes, and, at least under her stewardship, Chanel itself felt like it was straining for a youthful hipness that’s not particularly in its DNA. Leaving aside why all the brands are chasing Youth Above All Else right now (how much disposable income do they think Kids Today have?), I don’t think Viard quite knew how to morph a brand best known for ladylike tweed suits to appeal to a younger audience. The bags s…