Earlier Chanelmania reporting in Back Row:

Chanelmania has become so pronounced that I feel a divide has emerged between those who have caught it and those who haven’t. Those I know who rushed to buy it are trying to convince me to do the same. Die-hard clients who shopped ravenously during the Karl Lagerfeld era, and that of his successor Virginie Viard, tell me I shouldn’t dare start buying Chanel now. (For the record, the only Chanel I’ve ever owned has been a watch, purchased secondhand and gifted to me on a special occasion.)

Whatever camp you consider yourself part of, March 2026 will go down in fashion history as the month “Chanelmania” swept the internet. Now that it’s April, has the hysteria for new designer Matthieu Blazy’s designs — square-toed shoes, non-quilted bags, cropped jackets and low-slung trousers meant to be worn with their own special knit underwear — exhausted itself?

In effort to answer these pressing questions, Back Row this month is devoting Retail Confessions — a column in which luxury salespeople talk frankly about what selling to the ultra-wealthy is really like — to Chanelmania. Today’s interview subject sells Chanel in a large department store, having previously worked at a major Chanel boutique.

“Every fitting was good, but the jackets were $12,000 to $15,000. Some are $24,000. Clients say, ‘I don't want to pay this much money.’ If they spend that much, they want to buy pieces they see on celebrities or in PR,” this sales associate said, noting these clients are accustomed to spending more like $8,000 to $9,000 on Chanel jackets.

Ahead, this person explains why they believe the craze wasn’t entirely organic, why billionaires are the pickiest shoppers, and how Chanel attempts to control its image.

You recently went through fittings for the new spring pieces by Blazy. How did those go?

There was a four-day preview for top clients to shop early, which I've never seen — it’s usually two days. So there was no merchandise to begin with when it launched. I had a client the first afternoon the collection was out, whose friend went to another Chanel before that, and she said she couldn't find anything. All the pieces they had seen that were part of a PR push — on Instagram or celebrities — were already reserved. The Charvet shirts — all reserved. Those were priced pretty well [at $4,350]. The green jacket A$AP Rocky wore — all reserved.

You know the simple pieces Matthieu Blazy makes — the ones that could be any brand except for the CCs? That’s what’s left.

If Chanel did the pre-sale for four days instead of the usual two, do you think they did that so that when it "launched," fewer people would have the chance to buy it?

I think that's one trick. Another trick is…