July 5, 2023 |
It was a picture-perfect postcard from Paris: a Chanel show staged on the bank of the Seine with all the bourgeois chic, flower baskets and impeccable groomed dogs a Parisienne could dream of. As guests made their way to the river by the Pont des Invalides, we were met by bouquinistes and pictures of Vanessa Paradis. She played muse to Virginie Viard’s decidedly Parisian haute couture show, which celebrated the culture of the French capital, the women who inhabit it, and their Chanel-centric wardrobes.
Caroline de Maigret opened the show – scored by French songs by Françoise Hardy, Elton John and France Gall – in an archetypical bouclé coat, setting the tone for a collection that illustrated the many symbioses of the Parisienne’s wardrobe through the maison’s mind-blowing savoir-faire. “If we’re in Paris – and this time we’re in Paris itself, on the quayside – the street and the colourful paving stones call for both sophistication and simplicity,” Viard said. “Playing with opposites and contrasts, with nonchalance and elegance, is like standing on a line between strength and delicacy, which, at Chanel, is what we call allure.”
Photography courtesy of Chanel.
