In 1924, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel caused a sensation by designing costumes for the Ballets Russes' production of “Le Train Bleu,” as part of a group of creatives that also included Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. A century later, her successor Virginie Viard brought together her own collective of artists for her dance-inspired haute couture collection.
American singer Kendrick Lamar, filmmaker Dave Free and creative director Mike Carson designed the circular set dominated by a giant button, which descended from the ceiling at the start of the show. Lamar and Free also worked on “The Button,” a trailer for the collection starring Margaret Qualley, who opened the show.
With a broad smile, he paraded around in an ivory jacket that was evidently missing a button on the right sleeve, which he rushes to replace in the short film. Qualley, a classically trained dancer, is no newcomer to the Chanel runway, having made her Paris modeling debut for the brand in 2011.
The French luxury house is a major sponsor of the Paris Opera Ballet, and this season, Viard went light as a tutu with a lineup that alternated between ultra-short hemlines and frothy layers of tulle.
“There are a lot of legs in this collection,” the designer said in a preview. “There is something magical about bodies in motion.” Case in point: the micro-mini versions of Chanel's signature tweed suit that will keep you plié, chassé and jeté all day.
With its delicate color palette, the collection recalled his predecessor Karl Lagerfeld's love of pastel tones and delicate embellishments inspired by the 18th.th century. But while Lagerfeld mined a subject with a rigorous mastery of references, Viard has a more intuitive approach that can make his collections seem disjointed.
Here, she experimented with transparency, pairing a white leotard and pink tweed double-breasted jacket with a scrap of black chiffon skirt, or a sheer black doll over barely-there pants. Like all the looks, she wore them with thick white tights and black open sandals with a small heel.
Viard added volume with a black ribbed coat over a tiny tutu, or a pink tulle maxi skirt topped with a sparkly silver sequin jacket. But her stylized evening dresses, dissolved in layers of airy fabrics and feathers, were the true stars of the show.
Bruno Pavlovsky, fashion president and chairman of Chanel SAS, said haute couture was coming off a strong year with strong order books and should maintain its momentum, despite an overall slowdown in luxury spending.
“We still receive the same number of requests, so I think haute couture is not in the same situation as ready-to-wear, accessories or boutiques,” he said. “Fewer and fewer customers are coming into the stores. “It is a more complicated context: people travel less, simply because the economy is less favorable, which is why we are reviewing our forecasts for 2024.”
Although the brand continues to bet on growth, after three “exceptional” years, it does not expect luxury to remain totally immune to the headwinds that hit other sectors, the executive said.
With its spring couture film and show, Chanel sought to convey that its tweed jackets are a safe investment: the kind that can be passed down from generation to generation.
“Chanel's era is a little different. “I think it's very relevant today to say that things can get better with time, and a haute couture product can age, but it doesn't lose any of its symbolic power and impact,” Pavlovsky said.
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