ONE of the hottest show tickets during the Paris Fashion Week is unquestionably the Chanel showcase by Karl Lagerfeld.
Known for its spectacular presentation at the majestic Grand Palais venue, the Chanel showcase was the most talked-about event of the fashion week and attracted a bevy of celebrities from all over the world to sit front row with the fashion elite every season.
Chanel’s latest Spring-Summer 2015 showcase last month drew an international guest list that included Australian director Baz Luhrmann, K-pop star G-Dragon, French actress Clotilde Hesme, Japanese actress Kiko Mizuhara, models Alexa Chung and Poppy Delevingne, actress Anna Mouglalis and newcomer Astrid Bergès-Frisbey.
After last season’s fun-filled shopping spree at the Chanel supermarket, Spring-Summer 2015 was about self-assured women taking to the streets and bonding together in a mock “feminist demonstration”, carrying placards with slogans like “Make Fashion Not War”, “Tweed is better than tweet”, “Free freedom”, “Boys Should Get Pregnant Too” and “Ladies first”, with extra help from supermodels Gisele Bündchen and Cara Delevingne screaming “What do we want?” on their quilted Chanel loudhailers.
As for the show setting, an elaborate Parisian street, or more appropriately, “Boulevard Chanel”, served as the catwalk and was recreated by creative director Lagerfeld under the steel-and-glass roof of the soaring Grand Palais in Paris, complete with pavements, scaffolding and trompe l’oeil facades of 25-metre high Haussmannian buildings that rose from the ground to the blue sky above.
Rows of benches lined the sides to seat the house’s guests, with filmmaker Luhrmann proclaiming that Lagerfeld’s shows were “like true theatrical experiences”.
Needless to say, the collection was equally exciting and took its cue from Lagerfeld’s vision of different kinds of women advocating their rights today.
The early ‘70s was the height of the women’s movement and was referenced in many ways throughout the collection.
A distortion of masculine-feminine codes came early in the show with men’s tweed suits cut as double-breasted jackets and wide-leg trousers, or short-sleeved tunic jackets worn over painterly floral collared shirts in rainbow hues and accessorised with matching tweed “Coco Girl” boho-messenger bags or quilted clutch bags with built-in speaker.
A colourful burst of the same floral print followed on a mix of long coats, ankle-length wide-leg trousers, high boots and short dresses before segueing into a sea of pastels and iconic black and white looks that included countless interpretations of the masculine pin-stripes on flannel jackets, Bermuda shorts or wrap skirts and veiled with Bertha collars for a lingerie effect.
The street-theme did not yield a single long evening dress, except for some cocktail dresses embellished with shiny slate rectangles to mimic the brick walls or cobble streets of the boulevard.
“It’s not the red carpet” Lagerfeld said. “It’s the street.”