Behind Chanel’s—Chic, Discrete, and Very Chanel—Move Into Menswear

Right now, at the Chanel store in Soho, there are more crossbody bags and fanny packs on display (eight) than there are in the Supreme store a few blocks away (three). There is a big shelf of men’s sneakers—high tops, low-tops, hype-y, low-key, plimsoll, dad sneakers, knits, you name it—and a mesh nylon windbreaker and matching tank top in a women’s size 44 (about a men’s medium). It would look great on Future.

And just this week, Chanel announced its first capsule collection in the brand’s luxurious century-long history, made in collaboration with longtime fan-of-the-house Pharrell Williams. (Williams had teased the collection in a performance at the brand’s reprise Cruise show last October.) Williams says it’s gender fluid, and it includes hoodies, graffitied sneakers (“Women will save the world,” they read), very now shield sunglasses, loafers, bucket hats, jewelry and more in what the house calls “the colors of optimism.” All of it reads “CHANEL – PHARRELL,” as if these are now the two genders. But forgive us a moment of old-fashioned thinking: It’s all great stuff for guys, whether you’re in Miami or just running errands.

Since when is Chanel coming for men’s feet, men’s sacred hoodie collections, and—most terrifying of all, considering that aforementioned mesh jacket was $3550—men’s wallets? (And literally your wallet: one of the few dedicated men’s products in the store was, in fact, a wallet.)

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Let’s back up for a moment. Chanel isn’t exactly courting a male consumer. The house has never produced full menswear collections, though rumors have circulated for years. (In 2017, for example, the house went so far as to issue a statement denying that they were planning to launch a men’s collection with Hedi Slimane.) It’s never “marketed” its menswear, which is to say it doesn’t have full dedicated runway shows, though every show includes a handful of men’s looks. (That includes the Metiers d’Arts collection, in which Williams and Alton Mason both walked, along with Chanel runway regular, the pocket-sized muse Hudson Kroenig.) It made a shoe with Williams that was available exclusively at Paris boutique Colette in 2017 (RIP!), and the brand also employed Brad Pitt to front a Chanel No. 5 campaign in 2012, with the tagline “Inevitable” (Axe had already taken “the man your man could smell like”). The house wrote in an email that a small amount of ready-to-wear and the aforementioned shoes are usually available at stores including 57th Street and Soho, as well as a selection of stores in California. But it’s not exactly raring to go turbo at Pitti.

Nonetheless—or perhaps…inevitably, depending on how much you believe in the Chanel mythos—Chanel has emerged as a coveted name in menswear in the past few years, particularly in hip-hop. Young Thug, Future, Gunna, and Lil Uzi Vert are fans. But they don’t get it by hunting through the racks like a real housewife, nor do they “Contact An Advisor,” as the brand’s e-commerce-free website suggests. For many, particularly Thugga and Future, the Chanel plug is Bobby Wesley. Wesley is regularly in contact with boutiques that have accounts with Chanel—Jeffrey, the New York boutique with an Atlanta outpost, is a go-to—as well as the standalone Chanel stores.