The new head is set to lead the iconic house that made the little black dress a wardrobe staple

Replacing Alain Wetheimer, Chanel’s co-owner, Leena Nair joins an industry still reeling from the global pandemic. Customers are still avoiding retail stores, and moving to online shopping to lessen direct contact with other individuals. But unlike its competitors within the luxury industry, Chanel doesn’t sell its handbags online. Coupled with the death of Chanel’s artistic director Karl Lagerfeld in 2019, Nair has inherited some big hurdles to jump over in shaping the artistic vision of Chanel and continuing its legacy.

Still, that doesn’t seem to be slowing Nair down. In her interview with the World Economic Forum, she was clear that being the “first” in her roles isn’t new. At Unilever, apart from being the youngest ever chief, she was also the first female and first of Asian descent. Stepping into the top spot at Chanel, Nair is set to be the luxury brand’s first woman of colour to lead, and is one of few women of colour holding exclusive leadership roles in the industry.

“The last thing you want to do is fail, so you feel this enormous pressure and sense of responsibility to succeed at every job you’re given”, said Nair. For her, breaking the glass ceiling is its own success—but it’s not enough. By being the first, she wants to help others like her to have a less hard time climbing up the corporate ladder. 

That’s because she understands what it’s like to be “the only woman in the room”, as she told the World Economic Forum. In that interview, she also shared her experience of conducting business in buildings with no women’s bathroom so many times that it spawned an inside joke about naming a bathroom after her. When she became chief of human resources during her stay at Unilever, she helped the company reach a 50:50 ratio of men to women in managerial positions.

Needless to say, this is only the beginning. Leena Nair’s presence as CEO will surely send ripples within the industry—the same industry with a long history of white men being in charge. With her calls for racial equity, diversity, and the importance of emotional intelligence, we can assume that Chanel, as well as the luxury industry, are about to see some changes.