Natacha Ramsay-Levi leaves French house Chloe

Natacha Ramsay-Levi, the creative director of Chloe, has announced that she is stepping down.

After four years at the helm of the French luxury house, Ramsey said in a statement that owing to the recent medical, social and financial turmoil of the pandemic, she has "thought about the changes I want to see in our industry and how to better align them with my own creative, intellectual and emotional values."

“It is this reflection that makes me consider my future differently and desire to pursue new opportunities,” Ramsay-Levi says.

Her last show for the house was in September. Models were filmed via Zoom in areas of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, before taking to the runway. Beamed on to screens around the venue, it aimed to signify how our lives have shifted over the past few months. However, despite the success of the show, it was noted that many of her design team were leaving, giving rise to rumours Ramsay-Levi too might be on the move.

Her tenure at the label has been well-received critically, as she sought to build on Chloe’s edginess, taking the label down a less commercial route. Revisiting the 1970s hippie look made famous by past artistic director Karl Lagerfeld, Ramsay-Levi maintained the ultra feminine core of the brand, but added unexpected twists with styling and prints produced in collaboration with female artists.

Before taking over at Chloe, Ramsay-Levi worked at Balenciaga under then designer Nicolas Ghesquiere, who she briefly followed to Louis Vuitton. She took over Chloe in 2017 from Clare Waight Keller, who left to head up Givenchy.

The challenges of the pandemic have laid heavily on the luxury industry, with many designers using the enforced pause of the confinement to push for a shift in the relentless timetable of a new collection every three months. Ramsay-Levi was one of the voices asking for a new approach.

Chloe is expected to announce a new creative director soon.

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