CHLOÉ Bags

Carefree and whimsical, her name is Chloé. A historic fashion house firmly anchored in the pantheon of Parisian fashion, Chloé has long been counted on to provide a breath of fresh air with their utterly timeless creations. In 1952 Gaby Aghion, née Gabriella Hanoka, founded the luxury ready-to-wear line, named for one of her close friends. Intrinsically French and born of Egyptian roots, her ambition was to revolutionize the rigid styles of the 1950s with her swirling silhouettes and jersey shirt-dresses, which quickly found themselves in the pages of ELLE magazine. The young creator organized her first fashion show in 1956, around a luncheon at Paris' famous Café de Flore, a favorite haunt of the era's intelligentsia. Since then, a multitude of talented Creative Directors have shaped the brand. The first, though certainly not the least, was Karl Lagerfeld, who for fifteen years would fine-tune the label's emblematically romantic style. Jackie Kennedy, Brigitte Bardot, and Grace Kelly were instantly seduced, along with the Richemont group, who bought the brand in 1985. Stella McCartney, fresh out of school, would come to infuse Chloé's signature style with a touch of rock n roll starting in 1997. Phoebe Philo would take the reins in her wake, followed by Claire Waight Keller, who would shake up collections with masculine notes and unveil the Drew, Faye, and Marcie bags. In 2016, Natacha Ramsay-Levi took to the helm of the Chloé heritage, where she illustrated the strength and sensuality of today's woman with sharp silhouettes and a mix of prints and soft fabrics, transforming the irreverent bohemian into an adult that's as engaged as she is stylish. Season after season, #Chloegirls grow more and more numerous, united in their independence, friendship, and solidarity. In December 2020, the fashion house announced Gabriela Hearst as Ramsey-Levi's successor as Creative Director. Laureate of 2017's Woolmark Prize for Women's Fashion, as well as the CFDA prize in 2020, Hearst is the first Creative Director of mixed heritage — she's Uruguayan-American — to lead the Parisian label. Her cultural hybridity is reflected in her process: at her first Paris Fashion Week show in October 2020, the much-anticipated presentation didn't disappoint: featuring a small concert, South American culinary specialities, impossibly sharp set design and a positively sumptuous collection, it was a breath of fresh air that holds enormous promise for the future of the Chloé empire.