Chanel Head of Visual Merchandising
- Employment
- Full-Time
- Seniority
- Director
- Industry
- Fashion, Apparel & Leather Goods
- Posted
- Mar 16, 2026
About Chanel
Chanel is an independent French luxury house renowned for its haute couture, ready-to-wear, accessories, fragrance and beauty businesses. The company places premium value on artisanal savoir‑faire, creative leadership and heritage craftsmanship, operating a global retail network of boutiques and flagships while maintaining a culture of discretion and high standards.
Chanel seeks Head of Visual Merchandising in Shanghai to lead fashion VM strategy and creative excellence across China.
Role & Responsibilities
- Define and execute overall visual merchandising strategy for China's Fashion Division, integrating brand image, storytelling, and market dynamics
- Champion brand image and fashion energy across all visual merchandising touchpoints and customer journey
- Drive innovation in VM concepts and execution, ensuring agility and forward-thinking approaches responsive to market trends
- Oversee execution of VM plans across boutiques and collection journey, maintaining consistency and exceptional standards
- Lead and develop expert creative teams, fostering collaboration and maintaining strong team culture emphasizing learning and shared knowledge
- Manage annual budget planning, travel and entertainment allocation, and VM procurement to align with strategic objectives
- Collaborate with retail, marketing, merchandising, and styling teams to create cohesive, impactful visual solutions across all channels
- Balance brand image and business growth, ensuring VM initiatives enhance client journey while supporting commercial objectives
- Optimize stock-on-hand presentation, new item opportunities, and key event management for business effectiveness
- Establish and maintain connections with global and regional VM counterparts to ensure consistent brand execution
- Support synergies across regions, city-based initiatives, and directly operated boutiques versus shop-in-shop arrangements
- Identify, develop, and nurture emerging managers within the VM organization to build a sustainable talent pipeline
Qualifications
- Demonstrated passion for luxury fashion with deep understanding of brand heritage and fashion trends
- Proven track record as a brand advocate, championing brand image through all strategic initiatives
- Exceptional aesthetic sensibility with ability to harmonize color, detail, and spatial design for visually impactful presentations
- Strong leadership experience inspiring and developing creative teams dedicated to brand excellence
- Strategic thinking capability with ability to balance multiple priorities while maintaining long-term vision
- Demonstrated ability to identify and leverage synergies across business functions and departments
- Proven agility and open-mindedness, with responsiveness to market changes and client demands
- Ability to effectively influence and engage key stakeholders across organizational levels
Skills
Experience
Extensive experience in luxury fashion visual merchandising, with proven success leading creative teams and executing strategic VM initiatives at a regional or divisional level. Demonstrated expertise in translating brand heritage and aesthetic values into compelling visual experiences across multiple retail locations and customer touchpoints.
Education
Higher education qualification, preferably in fashion, design, visual merchandising, business administration, or related discipline.
Workplace
The successful candidate will be located in Shanghai, Shanghai, China.
Culture
Chanel combines rigorous respect for heritage craftsmanship with a demanding creative ambition, encouraging employees to deliver exacting standards of quality and presentation. The workplace values discretion, collaborative cross‑discipline partnership and deep expertise in luxury retail execution.
About Cerulean
Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.
Frequently Asked Questions
The luxury industry is characterised by a diverse and nuanced nomenclature. Esteemed houses frequently employ proprietary terminology, and even within a single organisation like Chanel, titles may vary across global markets to reflect local conventions. To ensure absolute clarity, Cerulean assigns a standardised, industry-coherent canonical title to every listing. However, it is worth noting that this role is functionally synonymous with «Head of Visual Merchandising Strategy», «Visual Merchandising Director», «Fashion Visual Director», «Vice President of Visual Merchandising», and other variations. Our sophisticated search architecture anticipates these variations, ensuring that inquiries using related terms will seamlessly yield the exact roles you desire.