January 25, 2017 |
Today’s Chanel Haute Couture show took place in what one could rightly describe as a very fancy front room. However, since we are in Paris, and this is Haute Couture, we shall call it a salon. Which naturally meant op-u-lence – white couches for the FROW, plinths with vases of calla lilies atop and, as you might have already seen, a shiny, shiny mirrored floor and walls, echoing the spiral staircase in Coco Chanel’s legendary Rue Cambon apartment. A setting which made it, once again, the most photo-opped fash moment since, well, the last Chanel show. I mean, put a crowd of fashion people in a room full of mirrors and we’ll be amused for hours. This shininess wove through the collection (everybody knows that a lady should always match her outfit to the floor), Karl providing a lesson in shimmering eleganza – the Chanel tweed two-set, here cinched with a silver belt and sequinned at the collar and cuffs, a fully-embellished metallic pant suit, glittering knee-high boots. The colour palette? Let’s call it sugared almond – pale pistachio, blush pink, silver. There were gowns to ooh-and-ahh at too, of course, which had a sort of art deco-feel – dresses that at the hem and sleeves fell away into large puffs of feathers, the same 1920s-tinge also felt in elegant, softly-draped column dresses. From there, a movement towards a fifties-style, A-line silhouette – pouffy, fantasy creations that look set to adorn the bodies of many a young starlet this Oscar season. And talking of them (young starlets, that is) it was Chanel poster-girl Lily Rose-Depp who was this season’s bride, looking just lovely in an breathtaking blush pink ruffled number. A dress so good it looked edible. Another breathtaking show from the grand master of Haute Couture – showing once again that Mr Lagerfeld’s infinite imagination knows no bounds.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
