This Week: Chanel and Zara Face Fresh Tests

Two powerhouses at opposite ends of a turbulent fashion market will face fresh tests this week when designer Matthieu Blazy brings his Chanel revamp to New York for the brand’s latest Metiers d’Art show on Dec. 2 and Zara-owner Inditex reports its latest financial results the next day.

But first, The Fashion Awards will take place in London on Monday night. They’re the first under new British Fashion Council CEO Laura Weir. Colman Domingo is set to host and there may be some surprise announcements on the night.

Glenn Martens, Jonathan Anderson, Martine Rose, Miuccia Prada, Rick Owens and Willy Chavarria are in the running for designer of the year. Delphine Arnault, Brunello Cucinelli and Rei Kawakubo are among those set to receive special recognition, along with the late stylist Melanie Ward.

Chanel’s Return to New York

Matthieu Blazy’s October debut for Chanel was the hottest premiere in a Paris fashion season packed with them. The designer succeeded in injecting the French couture giant with a level of fresh creative energy and craft innovation that had insiders on their feet, even if some clients didn’t immediately take to the reset.

Now, Blazy’s Chanel revamp is heading to the US, with a Métiers d‘Art runway spectacular set for Tuesday night in New York. (It’s the brand’s first outing in the city since Karl Lagerfeld staged one of his last shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in December 2018, two months before he died).

The US is a vital market for Chanel: As Chinese luxury spending has slowed, the US has remained resilient. According to UBS, US customers drove 24 percent of total luxury goods sales in 2024, with sales to Americans expected to rise 2 percent this year, compared to a 6 percent drop for sales to Chinese.

As Chanel woos the women of New York — critical to the US market for their stylistic influence as well as their spending power — it needs to keep threading the needle between tradition and innovation: showing that Chanel is still Chanel, while also having something new to say.

Zara’s Slowdown

Inditex reports interim results for the first nine months of the year on Wednesday.

Its flagship Zara brand, which accounts for more than two-thirds of group revenue, has tried to upgrade its positioning, pushing its image, product offering and stores upmarket as it’s undercut by ultra-low-cost players like Shein and Temu and tries to win over a slice of shoppers priced out of the luxury segment.

In recent years, Inditex has expanded far faster than rivals, growing sales as much as 40 percent in the three years to 2024. But there are signs Zara’s push upmarket is facing headwinds as consumers tighten their belts and appear to be pushing back against prices that, according to market intelligence firm Lectra, have risen as much as 70 percent on average in the key US market over the last five years.

Inditex revenue grew only 1.6 percent in the first half of the year, one of the worst results in the entire history of the company. When Inditex reports Wednesday, investors will be looking for signs of improvement — or clear signals from management on where new growth will come from.