(Paris) In the middle of haute couture week in Paris, Chanel presented Tuesday at the Opéra Garnier a “grand evenings” collection, prepared by its studios after the sudden departure of its artistic director, Virginie Viard and in the meantime to find the “rare bird” to succeed him.
The stakes were high for Chanel, which had to prove in a few weeks that with or without its director, France’s best-known fashion house could stay the course.
The studio’s 150 artisans have thus crafted a “grand soir” collection, according to the press release, “sophisticated, luxurious, theatrical”, like the fashion show organized in the corridors of the opera transformed into an intimate dressing room.
Medieval cape, evening dress with puffed sleeves, elegant matador outfit with white bib and velvet tuxedo punctuate the house’s classic tweeds, with touches of burgundy and bright black.
In this cozy setting, the very “lagerfeldian” introduction of vinyl brings an unexpected touch to this parade of models wearing a large bow in their hair, a guaranteed “flirty” effect.
The collection was warmly applauded and the first words of fashion critics were enthusiastic.
At Chanel, the crisis had been brewing for months, the skeptical pouts in the front row of each Virginie Viard fashion show had become recurrent: it exploded on May 2, after the cruise show in Marseille, criticized for its haphazard cuts and a certain lack of audacity.
Virginie Viard, 62, took on this prestigious and demanding position in 2019, after the death of the legendary designer. She had previously worked alongside him for more than 20 years.
The succession, carefully planned by the “Kaiser” of fashion, was to be temporary. It lasted five years. And the “timing” of the separation was “imposed” on the house, its president of fashion activities, Bruno Pavlovsky, revealed on Tuesday.
For the future, the criteria begin to take shape, man or woman it doesn’t matter, but Chanel wants someone who will do Chanel.
“We will never make a clean slate of what exists at Chanel… There is a framework, the artistic direction must play within this framework,” Mr. Pavlovsky told the daily Le Figaro.
He adds that the house will take the time it takes to find the “rare bird.”
“The biggest difficulty today is that few designers know haute couture, have this expertise,” he says, about this traditional French know-how.
Among the names circulating, that of Hedi Slimane (Céline) has been coming up the most for months now, with the possibility of a first line for men.
More surprising would be those of the Frenchwoman Marine Serre or Simon Porte Jacquemus. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who left Valentino four months ago, would also be a legitimate candidate, as would the British Sarah Burton, who designed Princess Kate’s wedding dress.
After Chanel’s vaudeville at the opera, Alexis Mabille invited his guests to another show, this time at the Lido. From lunch, the French designer received hundreds of guests seated with their bottles of champagne and presented a collection of evening dresses all in rhinestones, bronzes and sensuality, concluded with a foam bath falling from the sky onto the room.
But just when you think that’s enough, burlesque performer Dita Von Teese emerges from the ground in a giant glass of champagne, for a striptease in a bath of bubbles.
“The idea was to have fun, to have fun, to forget in a few moments everything that is happening everywhere and to keep this mischievous and creative side,” declared after the fashion show, Alexis Mabille at the ‘AFP.
At Stéphane Rolland, the homage to Paris in black and white by the photographer Brassaï, with fatal silhouettes, red lips and mysterious airs, with slim waists and dizzying sculpting and bare backs.