The article first appeared in The Hindu on January 27, 2024
On a crisp November day in Oxfordshire, Leena Nair, the statuesque 54-year-old CEO of the uber luxury fashion brand Chanel, sat inconspicuously in the second row of BoF Voices, a prestigious annual conference organised by Business of Fashion, the fashion focused digital media company. Wearing a gold buttoned red Chanel jacket, with leather pants and short black boots, Nair was speaking at the conference, her first such public engagement after assuming the top job at Chanel, the French luxury fashion house, in January 2022. A 30-year veteran of Unilever, the Kolhapur, Maharashtra, native has been keeping a low profile since her appointment, a milestone moment not just for her, but for the fashion industry as well.