French luxury fashion house Chanel transformed the streets of Manchester into a couture catwalk for its annual Métiers d’Art fashion show.
Actors Kristen Stewart, Hugh Grant and Tilda Swinton were among VIPs at the event – who were protected from the rain by a tall perspex canopy erected over Thomas Street for the event.
The annual Chanel collection, known as the Métiers d’Art and which means “art professions”, pays homage to the small specialist workshops that Chanel began buying in 1984, and is designed to reflect the company’s desire to preserve craftsmanship linked with French luxury.
It flies the event to a different location each year, with previous cities including New York, Rome, Dakar, Salzburg, Dallas and its home turf.The event was last in the UK when it was staged at Linlithgow Castle in Scotland in 2012.
Manchester’s musical legacy and “creative energy” are what attracted the Chanel executives to the city, Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion, told the BBC.
“Too many things happen in London and we wanted to be in the UK out of London,” he said. “We decided to come to Manchester because it was the most inspiring for Virginie [Viard, creative director]. She was inspired by the music and art that she sees here in Manchester, and we’ve had a warm welcome.”
Chanel was clearly keen to reference its newfound surroundings: the show’s soundtrack was designed around Manchester-based musicians including bands such as The Fall, New Order and contemporary local rappers including Aitch and Bugzy Malone.
In contrast to their parents’ sibling rivalry, Liam Gallagher’s two sons Gene, 22, and Lennon, 24, were joined at the event by Noel Gallagher’s daughter Anais, 23.
Gene Gallagher and Lennon Gallagher wear Chanel at the Metiers D'Art Show— (Getty Images)
On the catwalk, models wore tweed baker boy cap with matching pastel-coloured suits and flat Mary Jane’s, in keeping with Chanel’s iconic feminine suit silhouette pioneered and popularised in the mid-Fifties.
It was at the Cheshire country home of Coco Chanel’s lover, the Duke of Westminster, that the designer borrowed tweed jackets for walks on the estate.Chanel, who fell in love with the fabric, famously took it to Paris and put it at the heart of the company’s iconic tweed suits that she pioneered when she reopened her couture business in 1953, aged 70, after a 14-year hiatus from the fashion industry.
Models walk the runway during the Chanel Metiers D’Art Fashion Show— (Getty Images)
The BBC reports that while Chanel has compensated local businesses in Manchester on the street for its catwalk takeover, some local shops and pubs had to close for up to two weeks as the company moved in to set up its operation.
Councillor Luthfur Rahman, Manchester’s cabinet member for culture, has not disclosed how much the firm had paid the city, but said it had "invested in the city" and highlighted how the event would help the local economy.
Kristen Stewart wearing and black and white tweed dress Chanel Metiers D’Art Fashion Show— (Getty Images)
“The fact that Chanel have chosen to come to Manchester demonstrates that we’re doing something right,” he said, adding the show was “great” for the city’s ambition to become a global destination.
However, some local residents felt that the luxury fashion spectacle, estimated to have cost millions of pounds, was ill-judged given many locals are feeling the effects of the cost of living crisis.One protester outside held a sign calling on the city council to get its “priorities sorted”, with the slogan: “Food or heat! Not luxury goods.”
