I have never attended couture fashion week as a guest of Chanel. If I had to guess what it feels like to get a camellia-topped invitation for the first time, get dressed by the house, and sit feet away from the Fall 2024 collection as it glides by, I can imagine it's an opulent moment. Anna Sawai, star of FX's Shogun, similarly tells me she wasn't sure what to expect from her first Chanel couture show on Tuesday. Preparing to ascend the steps at Paris's Palais Garnier, home of the opera and this season's runway, Sawai did know how she wanted to dress the part.
"I was able to try on very different outfits and it was hard to choose because it really was so different," Sawai tells me a few hours after her front row debut. She and stylist Karla Welch were caught between two routes headed in aesthetically opposing directions: one sweet and soft look, one edgy and all-leather.
