General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20266 min read

Chloé

Chloé is a French luxury fashion house founded in Paris in 1952 by Gaby Aghion and Jacques Lenoir, and one of the first fashion houses to sell luxury ready-to-wear as an alternative to made-to-order haute couture¹. The house is known for soft, feminine, bohemian-chic design and is owned by the Swiss group Richemont². Its creative director since October 2023 is the German designer Chemena Kamali³.

Key fact	Detail
Founded	1952 in Paris, France, by Gaby Aghion and Jacques Lenoir¹
Innovation	One of the first fashion houses to sell luxury ready-to-wear rather than only haute couture¹
Signature designers	Karl Lagerfeld (from 1964, sole designer from 1974, left 1983, returned 1992), Stella McCartney (1997), Phoebe Philo (2001), Clare Waight Keller (2011), Gabriela Hearst (2020), Chemena Kamali (2023)⁴
Ownership	Richemont Group²
Leadership	CEO Laurent Malecaze (since December 2023); store network of 182³
Certification	B Corp certified in October 2021; overall B Impact score of 97.3 against a median of 50.9 for ordinary businesses⁵
Product divisions	Ready-To-Wear, Accessories, Fashion Accessories, Shoes, and Licenses⁶

Founder and founding idea

Gaby Aghion (1921-2014) founded the house in Paris in 1952². Richemont describes her as an Egyptian-born Parisian who wanted to liberate women's bodies from the stiffly formal fashion of the time through a luxury ready-to-wear offering³. At a time when designer-dictated couture made to order for individual clients dominated French fashion, she filled the space between haute couture and the casual clothes already available in stores, with feminine clothes in soft silhouettes that rejected the stiff shapes of the era⁴.

In 1952 she gave the label its name, borrowing that of a friend whose look she saw as quietly glamorous, and enlisted Jacques Lenoir to handle operations so that she could concentrate on the creative work.⁷ Aghion's first fashion show took place at the Café de Flore, a Left Bank restaurant then frequented by intellectuals⁴. In 1959 she passed the reins to the French designer Gérard Pipart, beginning the house's long record as an incubator of talent⁸.

The Lagerfeld era

Karl Lagerfeld joined the house as part of a design team in 1964⁴. In 1965, a year after his arrival, he designed the Tertulia dress for Spring-Summer 1966, its hand-painted art nouveau-inspired motifs setting the tone for the house's elegant take on bohemian chic⁹. In the 1970s his collections for Chloé became some of the most influential in the industry, helping popularize the "Soft Look" of voluminous layers in light, hyper-feminine fabrics⁴. From 1974 onwards he was Chloé's sole designer, and the decade was marked by his soft silk dresses, which celebrated a feminine, carefree romanticism with delicate lace inserts⁹.

The house itself expanded in this period. The first Chloé boutique opened in 1972 at the corner of rue du Bac and rue de Gribeauval in Paris's 7th arrondissement, and the first Chloé fragrance, a floral feminine scent, launched in April 1975 and became one of the most popular scents of its time⁹.

Lagerfeld left in 1983. In 1987 Martine Sitbon, a Moroccan-born designer, was named to the top job and injected a youthful energy during her five years at the label⁴. Lagerfeld then briefly returned in 1992⁴.

The succession of women designers

In 1997 the fresh-out-of-school Stella McCartney became Lagerfeld's successor and reimagined the house's feminine savoir faire for a new generation, mixing curve-emphasizing tailoring with frilly dresses and a cheeky sense of humor; her 2001 collection featured a t-shirt reading "Keep Your Bananas Off My Melons"⁴. When McCartney left to launch her own label in 2001, her design assistant Phoebe Philo succeeded her⁴^•⁹. Philo's debut collection for spring 2002 established babydoll dresses, cotton eyelet, and wooden platforms as signatures of the early 2000s, and in Spring 2005 the house released the Paddington bag, its first major leather-goods work⁴^•⁹.

The 2000s also broadened the business: accessories including bags, small leather goods, and shoes were launched, along with the sister line See by Chloé, a younger, lower-priced diffusion line sharing the main house's romantic codes⁹^•¹⁰. Hannah MacGibbon became creative director in 2009, followed by Clare Waight Keller in 2011, Natacha Ramsay-Levi in 2017, and Gabriela Hearst in 2020⁴.

Sustainability and B Corp certification

Under Gabriela Hearst, whose debut fall 2021 collection used recycled cashmere, organic cotton, and reworked vintage bags, Chloé pursued a mission-driven transformation⁴. The house achieved B Corp certification in October 2021, a certification that evaluates governance, workforce, customer practices, environmental impact, and community interaction⁴^•⁶. On the B Impact assessment Chloé earned an overall score of 97.3, against a median of 50.9 for ordinary businesses that complete the assessment; its 2021 score had been 85.2⁵.

The Kamali era

Chemena Kamali was appointed creative director in October 2023, succeeding Hearst, and Laurent Malecaze arrived as Chief Executive Officer that December³. Kamali had first interned at the maison in the early 2000s and later worked there as design director; her appointment aimed to re-root Chloé in its foundational values, putting Parisian chic and effortless, joyful femininity at the center of the collections³^•⁴. Her debut fall 2024 collection focused on easy-but-glam blouses, thigh-high boots, and denim, and ushered a boho sensibility back into the fashion conversation⁴. Her shows have drawn celebrity attention, with Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King in the front row for her fall 2026 presentation at the Maison de l'UNESCO in Paris¹¹. For spring-summer 2027 she returned to the house's archives for an "Obsession" collection shown at the Paris Observatory¹².

The brand today

Chloé is organized into five product divisions: Ready-To-Wear, Accessories, Fashion Accessories, Shoes, and Licenses, and its product lines span ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, jewelry, and childrenswear⁶^•¹³. The house operates a store network of 182 under CEO Laurent Malecaze³. Its recognizable bags include the Paddington, Marcie, Drew, Woody, and Banana lines, with the banana motif first used in collections in 2004¹⁴. The house's signature themes are conventionally summarized as femininity, romanticism, lingerie-style, and pastel colors¹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Food, customs, and everyday culture › Clothing, textiles, and domestic crafts › Textile and clothing industry › Clothing brands and retail › Fashion and streetwear labels

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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