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THE evening before François Hollande was sworn in as the first French socialist president in 17 years, fashion’s Sun King celebrated at Versailles.
Karl Lagerfeld inaugurated the Chanel cruise collection on Monday among the verdant trees and splashing fountains framing the French palace. The interseason collection had more frills and furbelows than Marie Antoinette might have jammed into her closets.
“Liberty, equality, frivolity” seemed to be Chanel’s message, as the models walked out in casual, often mannish clothes, but with tweed dripping rivulets of lace and flower-strewn jackets with portrait necklines. There was plenty of attitude in platform sneakers and circular straw hats that were matched by big panniers on a knickerbocker skirt.
“The image of France has been a little sad: the gray uniform of Europe,” Mr. Lagerfeld said afterward, sipping Diet Coke but letting his audience eat foes gras and cake. The chandelier-filled ephemeral party place seemed like an upgrade on the French queen’s private retreat, the Petit Trianon.
“The Enlightenment was the best thing that happened to Europe, not debating in Brussels,” continued Mr. Lagerfeld, comparing the cultural period following the dark medieval years to the European Union era.
“I wanted to give France back some lightness,” he said.
Fashion has an uncanny knack for acting as a bellwether of changing times. While designers have recently been focused on a streamlined minimalism (let’s call it “austerity chic”), the new call for stimulation in the economy seems to have revived that most particular of French words: “frivole.”
The front-row audience, which included the actresses Vanessa Paradis and Tilda Swinton and the style icon Inès de la Fressange, sitting in fountain-side cabins, could find modern charm in the clothes: skinny denim knickers or wide tweed pants in “bleu de France.” But they were decked out with gilded trimmings, knitted embroidery and ribbon bows. That decoration was festooned, too, on spiky hair that mirrored that of the actress Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
Even if fashion thrives on change, the frolicking froufrou set a new mood. It was a feast of embellishment, although, at its calmest, the Chanel show had the serene beauty of the surrounding classic statues, as when a dress with the skirt standing away from the body was sculptured with pleats.
Versailles has been recreated recently as a putrid, mosquito-infested palace in a new film, “Les Adieux à la Reine” ( “Farewell, My Queen”), featuring Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette in her last days there.
Chanel’s version brought back the lighthearted Arcadian glamour of an age of Gallic grandeur. And who knows what Mr. Hollande, who celebrated his victory with an accordion rendition of Edith Piaf’s “Vie en Rose,” might have decided to say to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on his inaugural visit to Berlin?
Maybe that Ms. Merkel should lighten up and bring to a depressed Europe just a touch of frivolité?