Chanel returned to the Grand Palais — scene of the late Karl Lagerfeld’s most legendary triumphs — for the first time in four years Tuesday without a designer but still able to ruffle feathers with its birdcage-themed Paris Fashion Week show.
The famed French house turned the refurbished Belle Epoque edifice into a giant aviary, with a white birdcage at its centre to show off a collection festooned with plumes and feathers.
Only a day earlier British designer Stella McCartney had lamented the “billions of birds killed for the fashion industry” after the animal rights campaigner’s own bird-themed Paris show.
But there were plumes aplenty at Chanel — a favourite of its founder Gabrielle Chanel — as it celebrated her fascination with birds and flight.
The cage in the centre of the glass and steel nave was also a nod to Chanel’s iconic bird on a swing advert from 1992 starring French singer Vanessa Paradis and her black tail feathers.
Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough sat on the swing to sing this time. Paradis sat in the front row along with K-pop singer Jennie Kim and Oscar winning actor Lupita Nyong’o.
With the main entrance of the Grand Palais now bearing Gabrielle Chanel’s name as a part of a 30-million-euro ($33-million) deal to stage its shows at the Paris landmark, the brand wanted to plant a flag during uncertain times.
– No rush for new designer –
Without a creative director since June after Virginie Viard — who took over from Lagerfeld after his death in 2019 — bowed out, Chanel’s studio designed the spring summer collection, riffing on some of the label’s standards, from its trademark tweeds to lacy flapper dresses and flying jackets.
But it was the feathers that stood out, used in ruff-like collars on crocheted bombers and on 1920s-style gowns inspired by the glamour of French writer Colette’s forays into musical hall and cabaret.
Chanel chief Bruno Pavlovsky told AFP that the French company would not be rushed into finding a replacement for Viard, who was Lagerfeld’s righthand woman for decades.
“You should not have a knife at our throat” if you are going to make “the right choices”, he insisted, saying there would likely be an announcement by the end of the year.
Tom Ford, John Galliano, Simon Porte Jacquemus and French fashion editor Carine Roitfeld top the list of names mentioned to take over, though Pavlovsky would not be drawn.
With the big luxury Paris houses seeing profits fall as Chinese buyers button their purses, he said it was “the time for us to bounce back. Virginie did a great job over the last five years — indeed these last 30 years when she was at Karl’s side.
“We are just at the end of a cycle and the brand must start a new one,” Pavlovsky told AFP before the show.
“The strength of the brand is that it can take its time because we have teams who are super solid. All that gives us strength at a time when we could have been disturbed or weakened — but we are not,” Pavlovsky added.
– Pressing times for Miu Miu –
Hollywood stars Hilary Swank and Willen Dafoe later walked for the Italian label Miu Miu, Prada’s avant garde little sister.
Veteran designer Miuccia Prada — who has a doctorate in political science — called her show “Truthless Times” and had her models walk through a recreation of a newspaper printers’ press hall, with copies of her show notes flying overhead.
Her spring summer collection was a typically daring mash-up of swimming costumes and trunks with richly luxurious formal pieces.
Paris Fashion Week ends Tuesday with a show by French duo Coperni at Disneyland Paris.
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