Chanel -- Fine and dandy
Published: March 10, 2009
PARIS: 'I've gone chic," said Kate Moss, patting her new platinum blonde hair and her trim jacket above wide satin pants, while her fellow blonde, Claudia Schiffer, was in a classic satin blouse and slim skirt.
The Chanel show they had just seen defied definition. Upbeat, with a tonic of frivolity in the shape of removable, flowery white arm cuffs and fluffy knitwear, it was played out in black and white - except for injections of sugar pink and jade green.
Backstage, Karl Lagerfeld called it "Belle Brummel," referring to the English dandy Beau Brummel, who was mad for decorative frou frou. So was the designer, sending out Coco hats, geometric Art Deco-style jewelry and models with eyes outlined in sparkling silver.
The show had high points, but a lack of focus, although for Lagerfeld himself, there seemed to be a heavy concentration on product. Even the set was made of white boxes with black lacquered interiors that looked like the entrance to a chic Chanel store.
In the pell-mell presentation, some things stood out: No logos at all, except on a transparent plastic tote that framed the iconic Chanel quilted bag like a picture. There was a new collection of jade jewelry, that also came as a ring on a shoe heel. (The pale green looked less appealing as the color of a pair of pants.)
Fondant pink was more questionable at a moment when sobriety, not frivolity, is on message. And the wooly pink bed jackets and all-in-one jump suits were just weird - as though Chanel were courting a mythical teen client. By contrast, a satchel worn on the back looked cute.
The core of the collection was inked clearly in black and white: slim coat dresses or suits, finely tailored. Although there was jade woven into a Chanel check for an accent on the pocket, the day wear was streamlined - or would be once the cuffs and ruffles were slipped off.
In this financial maelstrom, Lagerfeld's task was to bring rigor back to Chanel without bringing rigor mortis to the same old suits. He did it effectively, perhaps using his head rather than his heart, as he had done in the exceptional January couture show. That was when cut-out paper hats inserted a lightness and had the freshness of a blank page turning.
In the show Tuesday, the scissored necklets and cuffs, with raw edges to the fabric, were a more practical version of the paper decoration. But fashion pages are not turned twice in six weeks. And this was just a nice Chanel show without the emotion that made the couture so special.