"Fashion show" falls several hundred miles short of describing Chanel's 2024/2025 Métiers d'Art runway, a collection of 60-plus looks presented at nightfall on Hangzhou, China's West Lake, as a serene mist swept over the water's surface. In a way, it was a painting come to life. Or more specifically, a realization of the illustrated scenery on Gabrielle Chanel’s Coromandel screens that still stand in her famed Rue Cambon apartment in Paris. The designer never traveled to China in her lifetime, but the reinterpretation of her screens as romantic silks and bouclé jackets in sunset tones looked like a wearable ticket there.
In another way, the show was an artist's summit, a celebration of creativity in all its forms. Complementing the intricate (and at times size-inclusive) runway looks made by Chanel's Creative Studio was a 1,100-strong guest list filled with masters of their crafts. Included in the lineup was writer, poet, and personal style arbiter Orion Carloto.
