Cool like Chemena by Katharina Pfannkuch | 29th August, 2024 | Personalities

In her show notes for her debut collection for Chloé, Chemena Kamali almost seemed to be describing herself. She wanted to “feel the presence of the Chloé woman,” sense her “natural beauty, aura and instinctive energy” along with something both “recognizable and fresh.”

When the designer crossed the catwalk after her highly lauded show last February in a caramel-colored blouse, jeans and sneakers, spontaneously hugged her young son and then proceeded to throw kisses toward the celebrity-packed audience (Jerry Hall and Sienna Miller were among those sitting in the front row), you could definitely feel it – the presence of the Chloé woman. Recognizable but also fresh, self-assured and gentle, sensual but too sexy, laid-back and ambitious.

Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1981, Kamali was no stranger to ambition. She grew up in nearby Dortmund, studied fashion design in Trier and then in London, where she took a master’s degree from the well-known Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in 2007. Evidently, she always knew exactly what she wanted to do: work for Chloé. The French fashion house, part of Richemont today, opened in Paris in 1952. Its founder Gaby Aghion is regarded as the inventor of the ready-to-wear principle, and to this day, Chloé stands for fashion that doesn’t trap its wearers into tight-fitting garments but envelops them in light, airy creations that are nonetheless easy to wear.

Here – and only here, as Kamali told Vogue magazine last January – is where she wanted to do the internship required as part of her studies. Unlike the other students, who applied to all of the big fashion houses, she boarded a train to Paris, went to Chloé’s headquarters and waited until someone finally agreed to look at her portfolio. Kamali had staked everything on one card, or rather, one portfolio, but Chloé accepted her and she was in.

What looked like a career move straight out of a film was in fact only the beginning. Kamali started out as a junior designer, returning to Chloé as design director in 2012. She also worked for Strenesse and Alberta Ferretti and spent six years with Saint Laurent. But her love for Chloé never faltered, which didn’t go ­unnoticed. Anthony Vaccarello, creative director at Saint Laurent, would often comment: “Oh, no, that’s too feminine, too soft. Keep that for Chloé!,” Kamali told Vogue.

In the fall of 2023, she was hired as Chloé’s creative director. When the new position was announced, she unsurprisingly admitted: “My heart has always been Chloé’s. It has been since I stepped through its doors more than 20 years ago.” Such a long, enduring love affair with a label is a true exception in the fashion world, where designers are replaced at shorter and shorter intervals and most positions still usually go to men rather than women.

When Sarah Burton left Alexander McQueen last fall and more recently, Virginie Viard left Chanel, the circle of prominent designers that includes Miuccia Prada, Donatella Versace and Maria Grazia Chiuri visibly grew smaller. How perfect, then, for Chemena Kamali to choose this moment to call attention to herself on a far bigger stage. How perfect, too, that Chloé is a fashion house known for its top female leaders. Laurent Malecaze’s appointment last year as president and CEO means a man is once again at the very top of the ­fashion house, but for most of Chloé’s 72-year history, the creative side of the business has been mostly run by women, including Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo, Claire Waight Keller and most recently, Gabriela Hearst. This makes complete sense from a pragmatic point of view because women who design fashion for other women have an easier time putting it to the wearability test than men.

Chloé founder Gaby Aghion would very likely have approved: While other couturiers back then were still putting their money on silhouettes that evoked Dior’s “New Look,” Aghion’s comfortable yet elegant designs for the Chloé women proceeded to take the world by storm.

The brand’s first prêt-à-porter show in 1956 didn’t take place in an elite Parisian salon but in Café de Flore, the legendary haunt of bohemians, free-thinkers, artists and intellectuals. Karl Lagerfeld, one of the few male designers for Chloé, was also frequent guest at the cafe. During his two stints at Chloé – from 1964 to 1984 and from 1992 to 1997 – he left his mark on precisely the designs that Kamali is so enthusiastic about today, primarily those from the late 1970s.

Recollections of that period are impossible to miss in Kamali’s debut collection: flowing fabrics, sheer lace, swinging ruffles, soft leather, jeans paired with clogs – and accessories including oversized sunglasses, headbands, a gold-tone metal belt with Chloé written in cursive and a new edition of the Bracelet Bag that Phoebe Philo created in the early aughts. A little bit of boho aesthetic, a lot of Chloé, or in the words of the designer herself, a “return to the original roots” as well as “a new beginning.” The collection acts as a gentle, playful, consciously imperfect and yet perfectly wearable riposte to sober minimalism, the cold, calculatedness of our digitalized era and the confusion of a world plagued by crises.

The way Kamali presented herself after the show, very approachable but also proud, was the final jewel in the crown of her achievement – not a glitzy, flamboyant jewel but one that shimmered softly. She appeared as a popular figure, a mom, someone you’d like to have as your friend, a person whose taste and wardrobe reflect a solid style, much like that of Phoebe Philo.

In Kamali’s case, the selection would be huge: Her extensive blouse collection consists of more than 600 pieces. That fits – like so much about this success story, because blouses happen to be part of the fashion brand’s DNA. Public response and media re-action leave no doubt whatsoever: This Chloé woman’s presence is both palpable and impossible to overlook.