Chanel came gift-wrapped in black ribbon at Paris fashion week. The ribbon was made of steel, not silk. It was the width of a city street and 368 metres long, soaring skywards beside the long catwalk like very pretty scaffolding. The message: the house of Chanel is as tough as it is chic.
New designer Matthieu Blazy is expected to take up his role next month, by which time Chanel will have been without a creative lead for almost a year. This design vacuum poses a challenge for the house, but Chanel still has a star designer – albeit one who has been dead for 54 years.
Coco herself, in suit and pearls and with a black ribbon trim on her shallow boater hat, is still the image that springs to mind first at the mention of the name Chanel, and this gives the house unrivalled staying power. The collections that have been produced by the leaderless design studio for the past year stay close to her codes. Like a good cheeseburger, the clothes are nonetheless satisfying for being predictable. Consumers never get bored of cheeseburgers.
A celebrity crowd that included the actor Dakota Fanning, gathered to admire grenadine silk tweed suits in cream, lipstick red and classic black, that came matched with ribboned hats.
There were crystal bows as jewellery, silk bows as blouse buttons, and a trompe l’œil ribbon snaking across a knitted dress. Pearls were supersized, with a single pearl the size of a tennis ball as the heel of a boot, and a string of pearls scaled up to be slung cross-body, with a hollow central pearl as a tiny bag.
Sock boots, with shiny black patent toes sewn on to bow-trimmed lace socks, brought Chanel’s two-tone pump up to date, leaning into fashion’s current obsession with posh socks. The handbags that drive Chanel’s profits were an integral part of the show with a style for every look – from miniature versions the size of postage stamps to oversized laptop sacks.
Prestige in fashion is about Oscar dresses and dazzling catwalk shows, but profits are dictated by sales of handbags, totes, wallets and sunglasses. Louis Vuitton is the biggest luxury house in the world, with a brand value estimated at $130bn (£100bn) last year, because it never forgets that the real point of dressing Emma Stone for the Oscars last week was to have her front row in Paris this week.
The vibe at Louis Vuitton was the cinematic romance of train travel, in films from Casablanca to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Designer Nicolas Ghesquière has a way of wearing his references lightly, fusing imagination and nostalgia to create something entirely new.
Devore velvet gowns with silk turbans spoke to the era of the Orient Express; slouchy knits and handkerchief hem skirts with chunky boots were more Interrail. Curvy dresses winked at Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. There was a mini collaboration with Kraftwerk, with the album art for 1977’s Trans Europe Express on the back of a pinstripe jumpsuit.
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Ghesquière is a unicorn in fashion. He is now in his 11th year at Louis Vuitton, with another four years to run on his contract. While a game of designer musical chairs is being played out all around him at Paris and Milan fashion weeks he remains a calm, constant presence, ending this show with smiles and waves and a kiss for loyal client Brigitte Macron in the front row.
