“Chanel wants desperately to be in the celebrity game.”
This is what a friend of mine in Paris who knows the fashion world told me last week.
But that friend, and most of us, are unaware that Chanel quietly laid off 70 top people in the US last month.
Only a few sites and newsletters reported it. The New York Times ignored it.
Nevertheless, Chanel will proceed this Saturday with its annual pre-Oscar dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel. London flack Charles Finch invites all the stars who are in town. There’s a red carpet. Finch holds forth like he’s the captain of the Love Boat. We will see pictures of this self-serving exercise on social media that night.
The main thing is that the party costs a huge amount of money, maybe a million bucks. The laid off Chanel execs will be happy to know this is where their salaries are going while they await their unemployment checks.
A statement issued last month from Chanel read: The decision to reduce headcount follows previous moves to limit spending and will help Chanel “better adapt to the current economic challenges.”
PS The Chanel Finch party will ignore the recent destructive wild fires in Los Angeles. There’s no fundraising component. Same with Vanity Fair’s post-Oscar party, although they say they’re giving money to the Motion Picture Fund and a group called baby2baby.
