Chanel’s haute couture show took place in an entirely different Paris from the city that has been in the headlines this week.
The setting for the show was picture-postcard Paris – literally. The catwalk was a cobblestoned stretch of the Seine quayside, swept and groomed for the occasion.
Sketches of the actor and brand ambassador Vanessa Paradis were slotted among the souvenir street signs, in the racks of tourist postcards. Biographies of Coco Chanel nestled between charmingly wobbly but suspiciously colour-coordinated stacks of Gallimard paperbacks by Albert Camus and Émile Zola.
The sun shone obligingly and the river sparkled. This was a Paris every bit as serene and blithe as the 1950s Hollywood vision of Funny Face, when Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire tap danced on the deck of the Eiffel Tower.
The charmed mood was in stark contrast to the ugly scenes that have taken place in Paris and across France since the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel M a week ago.
But French high fashion has long traded on the currency of an idealised, imaginary Paris, rather than the real city. One French guest noted that being at the show after the anxiety of recent events reminded her of a trend during the pandemic lockdown for city-dwellers shut indoors to rewatch classic films set in Paris.
“This time we are in Paris itself, on the quayside,” said the designer Virginie Viard of her latest collection. “The street and the colourful paving stones call for both sophistication and simplicity.” Events of the past week notwithstanding, there is a sense of everyday life in the style that Viard has brought to Chanel since taking the reins from her theatrical predecessor, Karl Lagerfeld. Viard, who joined Chanel as an embroidery trainee aged 25, is a 61-year-old who has been a living, breathing chic Parisian for her entire adult life, and it shows on her catwalk.
On the quayside, models carried baskets of flowers instead of £1,000 handbags. One walked her (impeccably groomed) dog. Many models wore their hair in the casual, looped off-duty-ballerinas style much in evidence on the Métro.
Casting at Chanel has become more inclusive since Viard’s arrival, although there is still a way to go. This show was opened by the 48-year-old music producer and model Caroline de Maigret, in a simple long black coat, wearing low-heeled shoes appropriate for walking on uneven cobblestones and smiling at the audience. The last look in the collection, preceding the bride, was a black taffeta evening gown with matching cape, worn by the Indigenous activist and model Quannah Chasinghorse.
The bride, traditional finale of the haute couture shows, strolled the quayside with her hands in the pockets of her knee-length, long-sleeved ivory day dress. Jill Kortleve, who as a UK size 12 is among a new wave of “mid-sized” models and has become a regular on the Chanel catwalk since 2020, when she became the first model above a size 8 to be cast in a decade, wore a loose coat-dress and low-heeled Mary Jane shoes.
Chanel will always feel the need for tweed. Here, it came in pyjama-style shirt and trouser coords as well as skirt suits, as sleeveless waistcoats layered over blouses, and as formal jackets. There were some fanciful styling touches – a straw boater felt a stretch, even on a quayside – but hemlines were mostly a very sensible knee length, while shoes had chunky 2in block heels.
“Playing with opposites and contrasts, with nonchalance and elegance, is like standing on a line between strength and delicacy, which at Chanel is what we call allure,” said Viard.
