On June 5, Chanel creative director Virginie Viard suddenly stepped down from her role. On June 6, buzz about her potential replacement at Chanel turned to... Jeremy Scott?

Speculation about Viard's possible successors has spread across social media since 2024 began: it ranges from the immortal Graces Wales Bonner to Pierpaolo Piccioli, who only just departed Valentino, and CELINE's Hedi Slimane, whom inimitable Chanel overseer Karl Lagerfeld publicly admired enough to write a book charting the diet he undertook to fit into Slimane's clothes.

But these rumors also include, amazingly, Jeremy Scott, former Moschino creative director and longtime friend to Lagerfeld.

As wild as it may sound, there's some merit to the idea of Jeremy Scott at Chanel.

On June 6, editor Mario Abad screenshotted and Instagram Storie'd a post published to Dana Thomas' Substack in July 2023 — we're really in the weeds here, folks — that recounts an anecdote wherein Scott apparently refused to address the possibility of a job at Chanel.

Another Twitter user pointed to a decade-old W article quoting Lagerfeld himself saying that Scott was the "only person working in fashion who could take over Chanel."

Scott, whose deliciously lurid designs at Moschino and his eponymous label made him a favorite of celebrities and critics alike, has mostly stayed out of the industry spotlight since leaving the Italian house in 2023.

He's dished a few oddball collabs here and partied with a few celebs there but, otherwise, Scott has humbly enjoyed himself for the past year.

Notably, though, he attended 2023's Lagerfeld-themed Met Gala.

Scott's willfully indulgent creative language certainly makes him appear an odd choice for Chanel's famously crisp ethos at face value but, beyond the faith placed in Scott by Lagerfeld, recall that the house that Coco built has never been camp-averse.

Exhibit A: Lagerfeld's Chanel supermarket.

That doesn't mean that Scott's getting the Chanel gig, of course, but it doesn't mean he's not getting the gig.

Indeed, it's entirely possible that he's in the running alongside some of the other designers being discussed online. These types of high-profile, much-coveted jobs tend to have many applicants, you know.

There's been so much speculation around Chanel hiring a new creative force that Viard's abrupt departure feels more inevitable than shocking, despite the impressive successes that Viard racked up at the luxury house.

While much of the luxury industry sees only uneven wins during economic downturn, Chanel has enjoyed unprecedented, consistent prosperity even in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most recent reports put Chanel's revenue at 19 percent year-over-year growth, a continuation of the trend that evolved every year of Viard's five-year tenure.

Still, the many folks who view fashion as sport have long been all but placing bets as to who might succeed Viard, who herself took over for Lagerfeld in 2019.

And, frankly, when you think about it, Jeremy Scott makes just as much sense as anyone.