IT’S no surprise that Chanel’s 2017 Métiers D’Art show took place at the Ritz hotel where Karl Largerfeld led the brand’s return to Paris yesterday. The hotel is intimately linked to the life of Coco Chanel, it is only short distance from where she opened her first hat boutique in 1910 in the Place Vendôme and she lived in the hotel for some 35 years. But having undergone a recent revamp, the legendary hotel, built in 1898, also represented something else that Lagerfeld loves, la nouvelle.
It has been nearly 15 years since Chanel showed its first Métiers D’Art collection in 2002 in the French capital, the collection, which highlights the specialist techniques of Chanel-approved French ateliers, has since been presented in a wide array of locations from Dubai to Edinburgh. The homecoming felt in many ways refreshingly new. Other updates to the usual ritzy formula of a Chanel show were the faces of the brand, Cara Delevingne – returning to the runway for the first time in a year – alongside more recent muse Lily-Rose Depp and the uber-cool new it-girl on the scene Sofia Richie, daughter of Lionel.
Fed fine French confectionary in an afternoon tea setting, it was the café society cohort that inspired Lagerfeld for the show, dubbed Paris Cosmopolite. Backtracking to the twenties and thirties when the society set were unrivalled in their luxurious ways of life, Largerfeld took his cues from their decadent dress. Tweeds were scattered with highly detailed embellishments of sequins and dainty flowers while sharp suits were offset by limper little black dresses hitched up on slight frames by bows and ribbon and trimmed in feathers.
The ubiquitous Chanel jacket was seen at different lengths, sometimes cropped informally and other times at a more formal length and paired chicly with skirts. Along with the eveningwear creations featured in the show that were as dazzling as ever, the signature motifs and knitwear gestures seemed fresh and hip in equal measure. When Pharrell Williams, who walked in the show, suits up in Chanel and gives it his singular swagger, the hipness is irrefutable.
Each piece boasted outstanding workmanship in celebration of the skilled army of embroiderers, hatters, glove-makers, jewellers and shoemakers which Chanel still stands by in opposition of fast fashion. This show of taste, brought home, was a nice and reaffirming notion to end the year on.
Following a 2016 during which Paris has been struck with retail rigor mortis, still in the wake of the 2015 terror attacks and other threats to living in the lap of luxury, including the violent heist involving Kim Kardashian at the start of October during Paris fashion week, this latest Chanel show was a defiant display of the immortality of the glamour of Paris. It also pointed to a more hopeful and vibrant spirit in 2017.
The veiled models festooned with flowers in their hair, which echoed the floral embroidery on their outfits, summed this up as they promenaded, grinning optimistically, about the dining tables. Karl Lagerfeld, as ever, showing that he always knows exactly the message to put out through the means of fashion show.
by Nicola Kavanagh
Images courtesy of Chanel
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.