by Adam PLOWRIGHT

PARIS — VIPs and fashionistas are all jostling for invitations to the most-coveted show at Paris Fashion Week: Matthieu Blazy's debut at Chanel. But who is the 41-year-old designer?

The Franco-Belgian is relatively low-key -- certainly not one of the big celebrity names he beat for the job -- and was picked for Chanel after a highly successful three-year stint at Bottega Veneta.

The new job is a massive promotion and career boost, however, taking him from a medium-sized Italian label to the world's second-largest luxury clothing brand with sales of around $20 billion annually.

Said to have impressed with his in-depth presentations during the recruitment process at Chanel, he embodies "a new generation with sincere humility", Chanel fashion president Bruno Pavlovsky said of Blazy when his nomination was announced.

Along with Blazy's creativity, the compliment about his character underlined another of his perceived qualities: the lack of a huge ego in an industry famed for them.

That is seen as good a fit for Chanel's discreet family owners, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer. They were looking for a loyal figure as only the fourth creative director in the brand's fabled history. 

"Chanel is a privately owned family house," Serge Carreira, a fashion expert at Sciences Po university in Paris, told AFP after Blazy's nomination. "The brand can take a long-term approach and allow time for things."

Blazy's biggest challenge will be moving the brand on from the 40-year period defined by its legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Until last year, Chanel was directed by Virginie Viard, the late Lagerfeld's handpicked successor, and this year's collections have been handled by an in-house team.

Hottest tickets

Blazy won widespread praise for his work at Bottega Veneta. He helped modernise the look of the classic Italian leather-goods house, making it more playful and daring, while also expanding its product range.

He oversaw the launch of its first fragrances and high-end jewellery, and updated the brand's classic "intrecciato" woven patterns with hit bags such as Kalimero, Andiamo and Sardine.

One of his first projects was designing a pair of $7,000 (6,000-euro) jeans from leather printed with a denim pattern that makes them look like the cotton versions.

His shows at Milan Fashion Week, attended by celebrities such as Julianne Moore and Jennifer Lawrence, quickly became "a top highlight, consistently among the hottest tickets", The Business of Fashion's luxury editor Robert Williams told AFP.

Chanel is a different scale, however, meaning that "the pressure to back up that creative edge with wearable designs is certainly a lot higher", said Williams.

Blazy soft-launched some of his first designs at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. British actress Tilda Swinton was seen in loosely cut white trousers and a short-sleeved blouse.

The full collection will be revealed in Paris on 6 October, the penultimate day of Paris Fashion Week, which kicks off on Monday.  

Raf Simons friendship

A heavy smoker, often modestly dressed in just jeans and t-shirt, Blazy collects art and is close friends with Belgian fashion master Raf Simons, a mentor and former boss on two occasions.

Blazy grew up in Paris with his art expert father and historian mother, along with a twin sister and brother.

"Tom Sawyer was my childhood hero," he told The New York Times in an interview last year, referring to the free-spirited titular character of Mark Twain's novel.

His own teenage rebelliousness led to him being sent to boarding schools in France and England. 

Having obtained his high school diploma, he went on to study fashion at La Cambre art school in Brussels and was hired after graduation by Simons, kickstarting a career that has seen him rapidly rise through major European and American labels.

He first came to public attention while designing as part of an anonymous collective that put together a collection for France's Maison Margiela in 2014.

Renowned British fashion journalist Suzy Menkes was so impressed by his work using rare fabrics that she "outed" him in an article in Vogue. "You can't keep such a talent under wraps," she wrote.

That helped propel him further, leading to jobs at Celine as well as Calvin Klein where he worked under Simons again, this time in New York.

Their two-year stint in the United States ended abruptly when they were fired in 2018, leaving Blazy standing in the street with a cardboard box containing his office possessions.

"It felt like a movie," he told The New York Times.