March 28, 2019 |
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have heard the exciting news that Chanel is working with their long-term collaborator Pharrell Williams on a capsule collection. After a long four-month wait, the pieces are finally dropping today, exclusively in Seoul, South Korea, and to mark this major moment in fashion history, we bring you five things you need to know about the collab:
1. This is the first time in the 110-year-long history of Chanel that the brand has collaborated with a person on a capsule collection. And instead of a designer, they’ve chosen a musician – a decision reflecting a rebellious spirit both Mademoiselle Coco and Karl Lagerfeld demonstrated in their time. Chanel-Pharrell comes as a cherry on top of a long-time collaboration between Lagerfeld and Pharrell, from red carpets and ad campaigns to short films and shows, they’ve been working together for years.
2. There’s a total of 43 items in the collection, overflowing with colour and bling. Clearly inspired by streetwear as well as Pharrell’s personal style and particularly his N.E.R.D days, as a nod to late 1990s and early noughties. Think bucket hats, terrycloth and diamanté embellishments all carrying the heavy Chanel logos. In total, there is nine ready-to-wear pieces, three different handbags, 15 pieces of costume jewellery, seven shoe silhouettes and six pairs of sunnies, as well as three secret accessories we’re still yet to find out more about. Just look at that costume necklace merging the two names – it’s true swag revisited.
3. While Pharrell is Chanel’s first, the musician is known as the pro of the collab. As one of the great pioneers of the collaboration mania we’re currently living in, Pharrell Williams has previously worked with Comme des Garçons, Ladurée, G-Star, Uniqlo and of course adidas Originals, for whom he’s still designing left, right and central. “It’s Pharrell – everyone’s gonna buy it,” Adesuwa Aighewi, one of the faces of the collection, says in the video. She’s not wrong.
4. As part of the big campaign (which is yet to be released), Adesuwa will be joined by the likes of Soo-Joo Park, Anok Yai as well as the first black male model to walk in a Chanel show, Alton Mason. And while the plot of the campaign is very much unknown, we do know it was inspired by a 1988 post-apocalyptic anime Akira which revolves around a bike gang in a dystopian version of Tokyo.
5. The collection’s official drop date is today, but that’s just in Seoul, South Korea, in celebration of the opening of a brand new flagship store there. Unless you’re up for a quick 12-hour flight to Korea, the rest of us will have to wait until April 4th to shop the rainbow-hued pieces. For all us Londoners, the locations to pencil in are the New Bond Street and Walton Street boutiques where they will be exclusively available from.
The Chanel-Pharrell collection launches today in Seoul, South Korea and on April 4th worldwide in selected Chanel stores.
