Chanel: Company Profile, History and Key Figures

Chanel is a privately owned French luxury house that makes haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather goods, fragrance, make-up, skincare, watches and fine jewellery. Its fashion house has been based at 31 rue Cambon in Paris since 1918, while its global chief executive works from London.

The company is one of the largest luxury brands in the world by sales. In May 2026 it reported a return to growth for 2025, with revenue of 19.3 billion dollars after a fall the year before.

Chanel: Privately Owned French House of Fashion, Fragrance and Beauty — The Chanel boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, 2008. Photo: Arnaud-Victor Monteux, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview and Founding

The house traces its start to 1910, when Gabrielle Chanel opened a hat shop at 21 rue Cambon in Paris under the name Chanel Modes. In 1913 she opened a boutique in the seaside town of Deauville, where she sold sportswear cut from jersey.

Jersey had until then been used mainly for men’s underwear, according to the Comite Colbert, the association of French luxury houses that Chanel joined in 1961. The house moved to its present address at 31 rue Cambon in 1918.

Chanel No. 5, created with the perfumer Ernest Beaux, went on sale at the rue Cambon boutique on 5 May 1921. Later designs that remain central to the brand include the little black dress, the tweed suit and the 2.55 quilted bag, named after its creation date of February 1955.

Gabrielle Chanel died in 1971. In 1983 Karl Lagerfeld became artistic director, a post he held until his death in 2019, when Virginie Viard took over the fashion collections.

Key Milestones

1910: Gabrielle Chanel opens a hat shop at 21 rue Cambon in Paris.
1913: First boutique opens in Deauville.
1918: The house settles at 31 rue Cambon.
1921: Chanel No. 5 goes on sale.
1955: The 2.55 quilted bag is created.
1983: Karl Lagerfeld is named artistic director.
1997: Chanel forms Paraffection, a subsidiary that brings together its art and fashion acquisitions.
2022: Leena Nair becomes Global Chief Executive Officer.
2025: Matthieu Blazy presents his first collection as head of fashion.

What It Does

Chanel designs, makes and sells products in three broad areas: fashion, fragrance and beauty, and watches and fine jewellery. Fashion covers haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories such as handbags and shoes.

Beside the main seasons, the house shows cruise and Metiers d’art collections. Lagerfeld revived the cruise line, introduced the Metiers d’art collections and restored haute couture, the Comite Colbert notes.

Since 1985 Chanel has supported French specialist crafts, known as metiers d’art, around the world, and in 1997 it grouped its acquisitions in this field under Paraffection. Its 2.55 bag alone takes 180 separate operations and up to 15 hours of work.

The house had more than 600 boutiques worldwide in 2023, when its headcount grew 14% to more than 36,500 people, FashionUnited reported.

The house has kept growing its store network. Reuters reported that Chanel opened 41 stores in 2025 and planned about 30 openings in 2026, nine of them fashion boutiques, including Boca Raton, Palo Alto and San Diego in the United States.

Asia-Pacific is the house’s largest region by sales. In 2025, revenue in the Americas rose 7.2%, Europe grew 2.5% and Asia-Pacific slipped 0.8% in currency-adjusted terms, Reuters said.

The Middle East accounted for about 4% of Chanel’s revenue in 2025. Luxury houses have been turning to the region, where Saudi Arabia has emerged as a growing luxury retail destination.

Unlike listed groups such as LVMH, built by Bernard Arnault, Chanel’s shares do not trade on a stock market. It still publishes its results once a year.