Escapism for the soul. A love-fuelled flight that never leaves the ground! Love permeates the Spring-Summer 2012 Haute Couture collection: love of excellence, materials, showmanship, and the precious skill of artisan craftsmen devoted to Chanel. Lagerfeld’s sense of humor is present, as well… “Catch me if you can”: Tuesday, January 24th, in the Grand Palais, aboard a meticulous replica of an aircraft cabin, something of the carefree spirit of the sixties was in the air with its mythology of air travel in those Pan Am years. Mischievous-looking air hostesses, refreshing clean lines and a warm elegance welcomed in 2012 with smiles all around. No Business Class here; everyone is seated in First Class – this is democracy according to Chanel!

As magnificent clouds drifted above our heads – a serious infringement of aircraft manufacturing standards – the collection began with a series of stunningly pure short daytime dresses featuring rouleau necklines and drop waistbands with low pockets, favoring the signature stance of this collection: hands in pockets. Hands free of any accessories, minds free of bourgeois constraints, very Coco-Chanel-casual, elegant, with a dash of insolence. As is fitting for a collection perched between earth and sky, the Couture comes in all shades of blue, a color as synonymous with infinity as it is with opulence and royalty. Slate, sapphire, lavender, deep marble, cobalt, lapis lazuli, navy and midnight blue, not forgetting Chanel’s beloved black.

All shades sparkled as the light bounced off sequins and crystals, cabochon, feather and rhinestone embroidery work. From mat to glossy, we yearned to touch the puff-sleeved dress swathed in light-blue sequins and embroidered with rainbow and peacock-eye motifs. We longed to carefully stroke the long grey-blue tweed skirt embroidered with iridescent strands, the tweed metamorphosing into lace as if by magic. Long black coat-dresses, the drama of the short black dress with straps hugging the neck, profiling a gymnast’s neckline, and the breathtakingly graceful counterbalance achieved by two bird-of-paradise pleated-sculpted sleeves.

A masterful collection navigating between 1920s silhouettes, 1960s graphic design, and the furious sulking of 1980s punk with crypto-mohawks accentuated with sumptuous head jewelry (a far cry from the crust punk look). Shimmering camellias, gem-studded moons, feathers sprouting forth with a celestial rustling. Stockings embroidered with constellations of stars above the knee have joined the pantheon of coveted items in the collection.

A cloud drifts through the cabin – nice touch! This cloud is as misty as a heart-wrenchingly pure evening gown. The show has come to an end. We raise our eyes to the glass ceiling and glimpse a starry night sky.
“A supersonic jet cuts off my thoughts with a Bang, trailing its signature across the sky, silent, curling, white, white” (Louis Aragon)

The scent of jasmine escapes from the Galerie Courbe of the Grand Palais; unusual for Paris in the month of December. Industrial metal rafters heave under the strain of immense crystal chandeliers. Aging brick walls are covered in pale grey marble fashioned into the façade of a Mughal palace. A dream-like fantasy. Baskets laden with mangoes, roses and pistachio nuts bask in the golden glow of candlelight. A silver toy train chugs steadily along yard after yard of electric track mounted on a princely banquet table of such lavish proportions never seen west of Jaisalmer.

Smoke billows out of a Chanel-double-C-branded chimney. This charming Dar(jee)ling Express is an allegory of the presentation: traveling without moving, beyond the constraints of time, to an imaginary India recreated in the Maharajas’ palace of the Grand Palais by Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel to honor the Métiers d’Art so prized by the House. It is a perfectly obvious match: India is made for Chanel. Coco Chanel herself designed a number of pieces inspired by Indian dress in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Materials drip with opulence: silk brocade, gold and silver lamé, crepe, duchess satin, pearls, embroidery, hand-painted Mughal floral motifs, and cascading pearls.
Androgynous traditional dress takes a lighthearted, eminently graceful leap: fitted white jodhpurs under a white tweed jacket; sinuous “salwar” pajama pants worn beneath flowing “kameez” tunics studded with rhinestones or emblazoned with golden sheaves of wheat against a black background; saris and harem pants paired with exquisite salwars or soft white zipped leather thigh boots stamped with motifs, in rhinestone-studded pomegranate velvet. Typically sensuous draping flows freely in a rustle of harem skirts, the signature piece of this collection. We love the rhinestone-sprinkled military frock coat, the various interpretations of the “achkan”, and the brocade coat with classic Nehru collar, glinting with mirror-embroidered pockets or studded with baroque pearls.

We are yearning after the biker-inspired military jacket embroidered with a dazzle of gold glitter and worn over a white paneled flared skirt embroidered with gold braiding, fit for a whirling dervish. We swoon at the sight of the diamante-shouldered jacket crackling with the deafeningly Indian heat of “rani” pink, sumptuously tamed by a tailored tweed jacket worn over gold lamé harem pants and a perfectly-proportioned black-and-pink tailored suit. And we are swept away in the fantasy of a white evening dress and its endlessly expressive “dupatta” scarf. The Fugitive, as the poet Rabindranath Tagore would describe it.

An array of virginal flat sandals makes for a free-flowing, youthful look, set off by neo-rock mojari-inspired pumps and gold-sequined flat ankle boots that hark back to the days of Swinging London. Jeweled leather and silver-chained fingerless gloves and disheveled rasta dreadlocks give a luxuriant hippie twist to the 1970s Goa vibe of Michel Gaubert’s psychedelic soundtrack.

This enchanting Métiers d’Art collection, a salute to master craftsmanship, ultimately glorifies an imaginary India. Yet its heroine’s ultra-modern look, both androgynous and feminine, is distilled from Indian spiritual heritage: Shiva and Shakti, male and female forces united and reconciled. The Chanel woman has found her dharma.

Photo © Olivier Saillant

Jules Verne? Wes Anderson? Georges Méliès? Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? This stunning recreation of the ocean floor, this immaculate white landscape of seaweed, stingrays, sharks and shells, daring the dream with candor and an optimistic, rather than desolate, idea of fashion.

So, captivated by an extravagant dream, enthralled, and traveling even before the show commenced, spectators awaited the various versions of the underwater theme throughout the collection.

It was a masterpiece: deceptively simple but never dull. Mermaids in slinky sheath dresses were not on the program. Instead, there were more youthful and light silhouettes than ever. Lots of long, tapering limbs, knee-revealing dresses and skirts, luxurious and loose knitwear, wonderful white sweaters worn over full skirts, the very image of elegance without pretension. We loved the mini-mini shorts in laminated denim worn under unstructured jackets, the little top embroidered like a bed of sea anemones, jackets sensually cut along the small of the back, the dress embroidered with bronze-colored scales. The collection seems to capture the shimmering light of the sun on the waves.

The tweed is iridescent with Lurex and mother-of-pearl applications chiseled onto suits. Extensive work on the materials reinforces the modernity and the energy of the profiles: rhodoid, neoprene and plastic accentuate the feeling of lightness. A silicon lace biker jacket designed by Sophie Halette is complimented by sinewy black plastic piping for the ultimate refined look. It is as though two hands had dived into the sea foam and brought back a jacket.

Subtle humour permeates the collection. The dress with embroidered shoulders bears a trompe-l’oeil of lacy seaweed below the waistline. Karl Lagerfeld has been having more fun than ever!

Heels shaped like coral branches or beaded shells, earrings and rings in the shape of sea urchins, shell-shaped clutch bags, rectangular quilted bags enchained like certain packages recovered by the sea customs… all enraptured the audience. The haunting black and white or silver-colored ankle boots gave movement and a subtle touch of the Swinging Sixties in London to the shapes.
The evening was sumptuous and youthful, with lengths remaining above the ankle, diaphanous volumes, lace, gemstones, sparkling embroidery, a spirit in-keeping with both the celestial and the aquatic.

Pearl, the iconic motif of the House of Chanel, was in its element! Assembled in delicate belts on some short dresses, it transformed into a sort of skin embroidery to create almost an almost surreal alignment down the spine.
Lightness, inventiveness and refinement for an intensely invigorating collection that ends with a Botticelli-style appearance of the singer Florence Welch, emerging from a giant shell to sing, accompanied by a harp player.

While her striking voice filled the Grand Palais, Paul Valéry’s words in ‘The Graveyard by the Sea’ came to mind:
“A freshness, exhalation of the sea,
Restores my soul . . . Salt-breathing potency!
Let’s run at the waves and be hurled back to living!”

This collection was exactly that, living!

Photo © Olivier Saillant

From the dizzy heights of whimsy, perched atop a black and white column on a replica Place Vendôme, a monochrome Coco Chanel decidedly wasn’t welcoming her guests at the Haute Couture runway show in the Grand Palais, Paris. Stonily surveying the evening-time hustle and bustle of summer 2011, the fashion world, and indeed the century, the arrogance of Coco’s stance is irreverently turned on its head as we lift our gaze and see right up her skirt. The ‘behind-the-scenes’ of fashion, we presume. Karl Lagerfeld ever fondly amuses himself with the muse. His Haute Couture collection spectacularly sweeps us through the silhouettes, fetishes and emblems that inform the Chanel aesthetic, from 1880 to 2011.

Staying for the moment in 2011, androgynous touches peek out from behind ultra-feminine constraints, luxury resists ostentation, and sheer elegance is infiltrated with unmistakably edgy cool. A boat-neck fuchsia evening gown is accessorized with embroidered black voile fingerless gloves. And the rocker overtones are stepped up a notch with a biker-esque zip running the length of a quilted evening skirt suit, unapologetic alongside sequin and embroidery detail. Feather, voile and lace fringing gives sass and spirit to black and white swans of the evening.
Lagerfeld offers a fresh spin on Godet skirts, sumptuous accented basque jackets, Peter Pan collars, collarless suits and straight-cut suits, with a sexily-slashed shoulder here, a glittering optical illusion of rhinestone buttons there, or perhaps a classic Karl high-necked collar to show off the ladylike posture of a head held high. Two-toned boots are transparent or fully embroidered by Massaro, exuding youth and movement.

Looking back to 1880, the boater hat is the sassy accessory of choice. It crops up throughout the collection, adorned with feathers, tulle or ribbon, embroidered, scattered with camellias, covered in tweed, serving every turn, and punctuating the collection like an exclamation mark. The boater hat is forever tied to Coco Chanel who, loving its simplicity, borrowed it from the garb of rowers and bicycling aficionados in the early 20th century, and promptly made it her own. The starry night in the Grand Palais conjures Renoir’s 1881 painting “Luncheon of the Boating Party”, which depicts a scene at the Maison Fournaise in Chatou, France. To the strains of a boating refrain: “In their jerseys and straw hats, the rowers are more charming than any of these young dandies!” (from Alain Chartier’s 1859 painting “Canotage, Glouglou, Stella et Mignonne”).
This dazzling collection gaily skips back and forth through the decades to offer a young, ever elegant silhouette… with sass.

Watch the full show online on chanel.com