But recognizing her influence, Christian Dior acknowledged that “with a black sweater and 10 rows of pearls,” Chanel revolutionized the way we dress.Ĭhanel died in 1971, and the house was managed by a list of forgettable names until Karl Lagerfeld took over in 1983. Paul Poiret, an early rival, was not kind: “Poverty deluxe,” he called the youthful, pared-down look that transformed women from overblown Belle Époque belles into sleek, bobbed-hair, modern women. Chanel opened up a new world for her customers, in which they could dress and play as she did-like the boys.Ĭecil Beaton observed the key to Chanel’s success in his 1954 book The Glass of Fashion: “It is the genius who creates the need, though that need must reflect the unconscious wishes of the moment if that genius is to be accepted.” To the liberated legions shedding their mantles of feminine festoonery, Chanel offered wide-leg trousers, cardigan jackets, striped Breton tops, turbans, turtlenecks, peacoats, and, of course, the LBD. “Nothing is more beautiful than freedom of the body,” she said. Much like the spirit of the rest of the show.With a snip of her ribbon-looped scissors, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel released women from their corsets and put them in fluid jersey suits and loose chemise dresses. It was a light-touch moment, simple and rather charming. She was wearing a little white dress entirely covered with embroidered doves and a white bow tie. Her collections aren’t fantasy, even if she well knows how to conjure up the magic of the couture ateliers to make pieces that look like snowy, frothy whipped cream.Īnd then, at the finale, out popped the bride from a hidden door in the elephant. Instead, Viard is a “modern wardrobe for real women” kind of a designer. Sometimes, truth be told, they can really get in the way of designers just designing clothes for modern life. Of course, there’s no rule that designers should have to stick to high concepts. “That silhouette might make you think it, but no.”īack to her reticence about committing to themes, again. Within this sequence, there was a chic, neat, parma-violet short sleeved tweed coat, worn with white leather opera gloves, and long, body-skimming dresses in tiny polka dots, and black or white lace.Īsked afterward if she’d been thinking 1930s with these languid dresses, Viard looked as if vintage Chanel collections hadn’t crossed her mind. So it was, when the collection switched from short and sweet daywear to long and slim evening. Proceeding “not too obviously” might actually be Viard’s motto. It was a bit ’60s Mod maybe, but not too obviously. That was followed by varieties of abbreviated, gilded Chanel tweeds: a short trapeze coat, de-frumpified box-pleated skirts cut as minis, and then a tiny sugar-pink coat-dress with a stand-away collar. By this time, they were walking around Veilhan’s menagerie of mobile animal sculptures-a horse, lion, deer, buffalo, bird, fish, dog, and elephant-which had been trundled out to join the camel. They flipped along in their short, flared suits with the odd top hat and bow tie, shod in little white cross-laced boots with Chanel’s signature black-tipped toes. Hey presto! A playful idea that got Viard into the swing of a theme-a parade of something between cute Chanel drum majorettes, or perhaps, circus ringmasters. Virginie Viard held a tete-a-tete with the artist Xavier Veilhan to come up with a set idea for the spring couture show in said apartment and-you can picture it-they must’ve looked around and said to each other “let’s do the animals!” What swiftly comes up are photos of Chanel at home in the Rue Cambon, with a model of a camel on a side-table, large bronzes of deer clustered around her fireplace, and lion effigies here, there, and everywhere. What could a conceptual camel be doing at Chanel couture? This puzzle-the first sight to greet the audience as they walked in-can easily be solved by googling Coco Chanel’s apartment.
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