Longtime Karl Lagerfeld collaborator Virginie Viard has been named head of creative operations for Chanel following Lagerfeld’s death at age 85.
Viard will be the first woman to lead the company since Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel introduced the brand in 1910, Vogue UK reported.
CEO Alain Wertheimer, whose family owns the design house, said in a statement that Viard had been entrusted with the position “so that the legacy of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld can live on."
