Chanel’s Autumn/Winter 2022 Paris Fashion Week show devoted its entire collection to tweed.
The bold move was a return to the French fashion house’s origins and a nod to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s signature tweed cardigan suits from the 1950s and the fabric now synonymous with the luxury label.
At the Grand Palais Ephemere on Tuesday, models stepped out in colours resembling the actual River Tweed that flows across the Borders region in Scotland and northern England that gave the historic fabric its name.
Signature house skirt suits and wrapped-up woollen styles came in muted tones of pinks, burgundies, blues and purples.
For Virginie Viard, Chanel’s creative director, the show acted as a “tribute” to Chanel and her life.
“Devoting the entire collection to tweed is a tribute,” she said in a statement.
“We followed the footsteps of Gabrielle Chanel along the River Tweed, to imagine tweeds in the colours of this landscape.”
Guests, including former world number one tennis player Venus Williams, sat on tweed-upholstered seats, clutching invites made of matching pink material.
The heritage fabric connects Chanel to Scotland, where she lived and stayed, and “would gather ferns and bouquets of flowers to inspire the local artisans for the tones she wanted.”
It was here where she borrowed the tweed jackets of her lover, the Duke of Westminster, accessorised with strings of pearls, and single-handedly transformed women’s fashion forever.
Viard took over the reins of the luxury brand following the death of Chanel’s previous creative director Karl Lagerfeld in February 2019.
Dubbed Lagerfeld’s “right-hand woman” the 60-year-old Frenchwoman, who previously held the role of fashion creation studio director at the French fashion house, was quickly named his successor.
Viard had been by Lagerfeld’s side at Chanel for more than three decades, and first joined the luxury label in 1987 as an intern, four years after Lagerfeld.
When asked by an interviewer whether the spirit of “Coco” Chanel lingered over the fashion house, she replied: “Yes, it’s like someone we knew well. Her aura is still hanging about the company.”
