by Adriana Zingone
This Tuesday October 2nd 2018, Chanel transformed the Grand Palais into a dream beach. An idyllic setting complete with sand, azure sky and sea. 
The colours are luminous: sunshine yellow, golden sand, tan beige, pink, blue, iced mint and mother-of-pearl white with navy blue and black. A parasol print on chiffon, multi-coloured plumetis sprinkled over tweed, and embroideries of sand and seashells: the atmosphere is joyful.
The look is defined by a sophisticated elegance with a variety of fabrics running from tweed to chiffon via crêpe, lace, cotton serge, denim, leather and poplin. The suit takes on new volumes: jackets have wide shoulders and flared sleeves, responding to skirts slit up the side and opening over mini-skirts, or unzipped, oversize trousers.
Jumpsuits with XL legs contrast sharply with outfits of short jackets and little tweed dresses. Men’s jackets are coupled with strapless cycling shorts or leggings. Jeans go with belted cardigans or swimwear with an asymmetric shoulder.
For both day and evening, vest dresses step out in white tweed swathed in stripes or embroidered with sequinned parasols, and in a sandy-hued tweed dotted with sequins.
Others are knotted like towels around the chest and held up with seashell necklace straps. Oversize tunics with a scooped neckline are open at the back. In mint or beige tweed, in crushed golden sand silk, they open to reveal a matching pair of shorts. Beach hut stripes appear over layered dresses in crêpe georgette inlaid with ladder lace.
There’s a diaphanous fluidity on long chiffon dresses printed with two-tone parasols and on a lace outfit. Resembling trails of sand, an embroidery of golden sequins sketches out delicate grooves on a pearlised white tweed suit, and on dresses in navy crêpe georgette.
The waterproof coat for summer showers is reinvented as a flared raincoat in plasticised lace. Karl Lagerfeld has fun appropriating the cabin dresses: now ‘robes cabanes’ (‘beach hut dresses’) they come in a multi-colour plumetis pink tweed and lace ruffles.
For evening they reappear adorned with an origami of chiffon ribbons. The designer explodes a kaleidoscope of sequinned parasols over a strapless dress and a scintillation of sequinned palm trees over a cage dress in black chiffon. Another dress is embellished with satin bows and ribbons.
