October 2, 2019 |
It would be a shame if the only conversation about the Chanel show was of the rogue YouTube comedienne who invaded the catwalk as a prank – and was firmly escorted of the stage by supermodel turned bouncer Gigi Hadid. Of course it went viral but there was more to the show than that. This was Virginie Viard’s first RTW show post-Karl. He died whilst designing the AW19 collection and out of respect, the house stuck to the plan he’d laid out for that show. SS20 was all her own – the first ready to wear crystallisation of her vision. Viard created a filmic set of Parisian roof tops (Chanel is still building the biggest sets in fashion) and introduced a new ingenue Chanel girl.
She’s dressed in a little tweed onesie, styled like a classic Chanel jacket up top but hot pants below. Who was this young woman, sneaking out over the rooftops to find adventure? Her mother wears couture but this new version of the Chanel girl, with her undone hair and barely-there make-up, has got a rebel heart (think Lily Rose-Depp as opposed to Caroline of Monaco). She might be schooled in the classic mores of French chic, but styles it her way – bomber over a tweed tunic, a black leather jacket with a striped school tie trim and a tiny pouf of a party skirt, hot pants with a classic tweed jacket, her bag dangling devil-may-care from her wrist. The coltish Kaia Gerber, in her off the shoulder black lace blouse and a mini white satin ball skirt summed up the new Chanel attitude. She didn’t wear a tiara on her head, but a tomboyish white bowler pushed back on the crown. At Chanel, it’s game on for the gamine.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans.
