As president of arts, culture, and heritage at Chanel, Yana Peel has unequivocally raised the stakes for the fashion world’s commitment to art. Under her watch, the French house has supported the opening of China’s first public contemporary art library, transformed Gabrielle Chanel’s French Riviera abode into a retreat for thinkers of all stripes, and launched the Next Prize for emerging artists.
What keeps you up at night?
Youth unemployment, gender-based violence, online safety for teens, anti-Semitism, A.I. eating the world. Also, whether I am going to be the last in my family to finish the next day’s Wordle.
What do you want to see more of in your industry? Less of?
I want to see more celebration of the creative journey and less fixation on metrics. In his recent book The Score, the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen calls for us to focus on the beauty of process in a world of quantified results. If we don’t control our scoring systems, they control us.
What’s one work of art that got you through an important moment in your life?
At every challenging moment: Anna Akhmatova’s “Requiem,” a poem that honors collective grief through individual genius, giving voice to voiceless women.
What is your biggest vice? Your greatest virtue?
Vice: I am always on. Also, Swedish Fish. Virtue: Optimism as a sense of duty.
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in your field?
Architecture. I’ve been most inspired by people in my life like Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers, who were committed to leaving each city they touched better than they found it. Career highlights for me were building pavilions with Frida Escobedo, [Diébédo] Francis Kéré, and Liu Jiakun when I was CEO of the Serpentine. As well as Christo, whose final project I had the honor of bringing to life in London.
What’s been the hardest part of your career so far?
6 a.m. starts on the London trading floor of Goldman Sachs.
What do you think is your biggest contribution to culture?
I get to create the conditions for artists and cultural leaders to pursue radical work.
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
What can I contribute that is singular/original? Which thinkers can help me go further than I can go myself? Will this accelerate the ideas that advance culture? Does my work bring joy?
Where do you feel most at home?
Hyde Park, Central Park, Sammy’s Beach, the mountains of Verbier. Always in nature.
Name an influence of yours that might surprise people.
Rave flyers from the 1990s.
Who do you call the most?
Elizabeth Saltzman, Hans Ulrich Obrist, my mom.
When’s the last time you laughed hysterically?
In Spain last summer, on the annual “Yanamigas” summer trip with my best friends. IYKYK… Or last week, trying to follow Danielle Barton’s choreography in a Pineapple dance class.
What would you wear to meet your greatest enemy?
Chanel, naturally. (And also to meet my dearest friend.)
What grounds you, and what invigorates you?
Grounds me: My family, dance at Sadler’s Wells and ABT, Fitzcarraldo Editions. Invigorates me: Original thought and disruption from brilliant minds across disciplines—tech, art, business, science, culture.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Lina Lapelytė’s takeover of the Hamburger Bahnhof’s Historic Hall, the Guggenheim’s celebration of pioneering women at the Venice Biennale, catching David Byrne on tour in London, celebrating Linder at 70 in Chanel’s collaboration at Kyotographie.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
