Chanel Catwalk: The Complete Karl Lagerfeld Collections

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Karl was always doing fake jeans,” recalled Viard, shuddering at the memory. “In the ’90s they always seemed to be with pink tweed—ugh! For me it was horrible then, but now j’adore!” With a snip of her ribbon-looped scissors, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel released women from their corsets and put them in fluid jersey suits and loose chemise dresses. “Nothing is more beautiful than freedom of the body,” she said. Chanel opened up a new world for her customers, in which they could dress and play as she did—like the boys. There were logo’d dungarees and salopettes for skiwear. Creative Director Virginie Viard said she was inspired by “the ambiance of ski holidays, which I adore, and a certain idea of cool Parisian chic, from the 1970s to now.” Sequin ballet flats, sheepskin covered boots and ingenious puffer boots that unzip to reveal silver booties “for dancing in” would all be desirable and practical additions to your dream wardrobe this Autumn. What could a conceptual camel be doing at Chanel couture? This puzzle—the first sight to greet the audience as they walked in—can easily be solved by googling Coco Chanel’s apartment. What swiftly comes up are photos of Chanel at home in the Rue Cambon, with a model of a camel on a side-table, large bronzes of deer clustered around her fireplace, and lion effigies here, there, and everywhere. Virginie Viard held a tete-a-tete with the artist Xavier Veilhan to come up with a set idea for the spring couture show in said apartment and—you can picture it—they must’ve looked around and said to each other “let’s do the animals!” In extraordinary scenes, the metal frames are being erected along the section of Thomas Street between Tib Street and High Street. On Tuesday these were starting to be covered by transparent roof sheets to weatherproof what appears to be a lenthy catwalk along the street.

The MEN has spoken to a number of businesses around the Northern Quarter who have said they've signed non disclosure agreements (NDAs) which prevent them talking about the event about to take place on Thomas Street. The MEN knows of a luxury hotel in the city centre that also claims to have signed an NDA amid extraordinary levels of secrecy around the fashion show and its high profile guests. That airy spirit continues in the quirky way Viard marries bouffant skirts or even suits—made from “tweed” woven from narrow strands of multi-colored tulle and ribbon—with delicate bustiers of pale pink broderie anglaise or chalky lace, and lingerie-light chiffon and lace camisoles and bloomers that she aptly calls her “little deshabilles.” Viard had organized a giant symbolic white camellia as a set, and had a real one placed on every guest’s seat, but she wasn’t pressing the anniversary angle. “The camellia is more than a theme, it’s an eternal code of the house,” she said in her press release. “I find it reassuring and familiar, I like its softness and its strength.”The house of Chanel has had two masters, but as it sails into its second century, its signature has remained the same—bold, understated elegance. To borrow another Coco-ism: “Fashion passes; style remains.” For her graphic Chanel cruise collection Virginie Viard sought inspiration in Provence, that beautiful region in the south of France lapped by the marshy Camargue and crowned by the hills of Les Baux-de-Provence, considered one of the area’s loveliest villages. Specifically, she set the collection in the Carrières de Lumières (Quarries of Light) in Les Baux, a series of chalky, cave-like rooms—the spaces left behind after centuries of excavations. Chanel had announced earlier this year it would hold its exclusive Métiers d'Art show in Manchester city centre for the first time ever this December. But the location and details of the show have been kept a closely-guarded secret by the fashion brand. These vast chambers have recently been used to present resonant sound and light shows evoking the world of various artists including Vincent van Gogh, who found inspiration in the local landscape. (Charlotte Casiraghi, hosting a literary salon during the presentation, has spent much of her life in nearby Saint Remy). Asked afterward if she’d been thinking 1930s with these languid dresses, Viard looked as if vintage Chanel collections hadn’t crossed her mind. “No,” she shrugged. “That silhouette might make you think it, but no.”

Ahead of Viard’s show, movie billboards promoting it as a “One Night Only” event went up around town, making an explicit point about Chanel’s embeddedness in LA’s dominant culture. (Speaking of brand power, as this show was being prepared, Chanel was also busily involved in the Met Gala in New York, which honored Lagerfeld’s many decade career.) Every one of the show’s hundreds of guests also received their own mini version of the billboard, with their name in top billing: The suggestion: In Chanel everyone is a star, with light-up heel shoes to prove it. Work has begun to transform a Northern Quarter street into a dramatic catwalk for international fashion brand Chanel. Thomas Street has been cordoned off for the next MONTH while huge metal structures are being erected, set to form a canopy for the catwalk extravaganza. That was followed by varieties of abbreviated, gilded Chanel tweeds: a short trapeze coat, de-frumpified box-pleated skirts cut as minis, and then a tiny sugar-pink coat-dress with a stand-away collar. It was a bit ’60s Mod maybe, but not too obviously. It’s a summer collection, so it’s very fresh, even with a lot of embroideries,” explained Chanel’s artistic director Virginie Viard during a fitting in the Chanel studios on the eve of the showing of her thistledown-light haute couture collection. “I was inspired by the ’20s a little—the feathers, the fringe,” Viard continued, “the feminine side of the Constructivists, the girl inside!”

Sixteen years ago, give or take a week or two, Chanel staged its second-ever cruise show in Los Angeles. Models spilled from the doorway of a private jet branded with the house’s double Cs onto a runway that wrapped around a Santa Monica airplane hangar. At the time, it was a jaw dropping display of brand power—the French house had not yet begun building over-the-top sets for its ready-to-wear and couture shows at the Grand Palais in Paris; the famous iceberg collection, for instance, was still a couple of years away. As a matter of fact, Viard didn’t look at the silver screen or the red carpet for inspiration, but to what appeared to be a more quotidian example of Los Angeles: the Venice Beach boardwalk, a see-and-be-seen playground for roller skaters, weight lifters, beach bunnies, and epic sunsets. “I thought let’s do Jane Fonda, Cindy Crawford—all our heroines,” she said at the “accessoirsation” of the collection a day before the show. “There are jeans, a more aerobic feeling; every show is the occasion to do something we’ve never done before.”