Virginie Viard titled Chanel's latest couture collection The Button, but there was nothing even remotely buttoned about these garments.
From the initial look, when actress and brand ambassador Margaret Qualley opened the show with a short four-button Chanel jacket in cream white, finished at the neck with a Catherine de Médicis ruffle and a micro mini.
Like almost all the models, she wore silver-white stockings, paired with sheer tulle miniskirts. Yards of tulle also poured out of the following looks: two super-light coat dresses in ecru wool bouclé and a Chanel jacket finished with faux pockets.
The first silver-white evening dress was semi-sheer, a look enhanced because it was used on a black number.
Classic summer outfits in pink, lemon and purple were finished with a second tulle embroidered with rhinestones, beads and crystals. Evening dresses were cut to reveal acres of thighs.
In a season when couturiers are reclaiming greatness, Chanel's simpler, more youthful take on haute couture seemed in tune with our times. Well targeted at a new generation of high fashion clients with personal trainers and fitness regimes.
In fact, in terms of length, this was the shortest Chanel collection in decades and a much bolder take on haute couture.
“I really wanted tulle, legs and lightness. And summer and something vaporous,” Viard said enthusiastically in a backstage where Inés de la Fressange, Blanca Li and Julie Gayet were waiting to congratulate her.
The tulle was also ideal for the stage, Chanel's latest sparkly ensemble. Built within the exhibition space of the Palais Royale Ephémère, behind the Eiffel Tower, this season it was an immense circle, with walls finished with tulle curtains. On the ceiling was a 12 meter wide button, which tilted downwards to indicate that the show would begin.
Chanel had telegraphed the concept two days before the show in a three-minute video also called The Button, starring Qualley, with a cameo by Naomi Campbell. Directed by Dave Free, with music by Kendrick Lamar, about a young fan of the brand whose Chanel jacket lost a button, forcing her to take an ocean liner and a steam train to the Paris headquarters at 31 rue Cambon . Where she is guided to see Coco Chanel, played by the deepest voice, Anna Mouglalis, who explains that the girl's mother, a generation earlier, had deliberately not sewn the button correctly so she could come to work for Coco as well.
“It's about beauty within the imperfections of time,” Coco explains, neatly summing up Viard's design philosophy.
Inside the dark entrance of the show, there was a two-meter-high spool of thread with a three-meter-long needle; Nearby are five-meter-long silver scissors. Symbolizing the entire craft of haute couture, and how only the seamstresses of Paris, known as “les petits mains”, can truly create great couture.
Qualley led the cast at the end, almost giddy with emotion and looking very at ease on a beige Chanel shag rug.
“We adore Margaret Qualley. She is a great actress, and before she was a dancer, which was another inspiration in this show,” Viard added.
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