Chanel Taps Marie-Laure Cérède as Director of Jewelry Creation Studio
The former Cartier creative director of jewelry and watchmaking will join the company in October 2026.
Reported by Vogue.
The fashion world's most-watched vacancy just got filled. Chanel has named Marie-Laure Cérède as director of its jewelry creation studio — the role left open since the death of Patrice Leguéreau, who held the position for 15 years, in 2024. Cérède officially joins in October 2026, though, according to Vogue, industry speculation about the appointment had been building since she quietly exited Cartier at the close of last year.
The hire carries serious weight. Cérède spent nearly a decade at Cartier as creative director of jewelry and watchmaking — high jewelry included — before leaving in 2025. At Chanel, she'll oversee both precious and high jewelry, reporting to Frédéric Grangié, president of watches and fine jewelry, and working alongside watchmaking studio director Arnaud Chastaingt. Chanel global executive chair Alain Wertheimer and global CEO Leena Nair called her "one of the most talented, refined, and accomplished creative directors of her generation" — language that signals this isn't just a fill-the-seat appointment.
What's Actually at Stake
The business context matters here. Morgan Stanley estimates put Chanel's watches and jewelry division at roughly $965 million — around 5% of the house's total 2025 turnover of $19.3 billion. That's a meaningful slice of revenue for a category that lives and dies by creative vision. Grangié framed Cérède's appointment in terms of her ability to balance "heritage, emotion, audacity, and restraint" — the kind of brief that sounds poetic but translates directly into whether a high jewelry collection commands the room at a Paris presentation or gets politely ignored by the press.
Cérède, for her part, described the maison as a place of "singular cultural force and exceptional discipline" that continues to "redefine femininity and express modernity through form and spirit." It's the right thing to say — and also, coming from someone with her résumé, probably something she genuinely means. Her deep background in gemology and craft gives her the technical authority to back up the vision.
With Chanel's jewelry identity still finding its footing after Leguéreau's absence, Cérède isn't just stepping into a job — she's stepping into a defining creative moment for one of fashion's most scrutinized houses.
Read the original at Vogue.
