More on the changes at Chloé

Now, the timing of Waight Keller’s resignation in March, combined with Chloé CEO Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye’s faint reassurance that ‘Hannah is still with us, that’s all I can say’ from April, make it clear that the designer change had been in the works for some time.

‘We warmly welcome Clare to Chloé as we continue to define feminine elegance for the radiant, active and effortlessly graceful woman of today,’ de la Bourdonnaye said in a statement yesterday.

Waight Keller is set to give birth to her third child this week, after which she and her husband will move their young family to Paris in time for Waight Keller to take up her new position at Chloé on 1 June. It’s a fast turnaround that bespeaks Waight Keller’s ambition to assume the highest-profile role of her career.

‘I am thrilled to be joining one of the most prestigious design houses in Paris,’ Waight Keller said. ‘Chloé is a brand that conveys a beautiful sense of effortless femininity and vivacious sophistication that I look forward to continuing into the next era.’

Waight Keller’s appointment is the latest step in a sweeping revamp of the Chloé brand. It started last summer, when de la Bourdonnaye succeeded MacGibbon ally Ralph Toledano as CEO. De la Bourdonnaye, who left the top job at Liberty to come to Chloé, would have been familiar with Waight Keller’s rebranding nous from her time at Pringle, where she reinvented a heritage knitwear brand into a house with a must-see London Fashion Week show.

‘I admire what Clare has done at Pringle. She’s made it more international and more contemporary. She really made it exist on the fashion scen