by Francesca Fortini LA REVE PR & ADV
Karl Lagerfeld transformed the Grand Palais in Paris into a vast Mediterranean garden for the Chanel’s Spring Summer 2019 Haute Couture fashion show.
A pool of water, surrounded by trees and greenery evoking Villa ‘La Pausa’, the historic house that Gabrielle Chanel built in the 1930s, on the French Riviera, creates a poetic and harmonious atmosphere.
Karl Lagerfeld draws inspiration from the 18th century artistic and aesthetic themes to create a wonderful collection, in which the flowers become protagonists: embroidered, painted, in lace, in feathers, in resin and in ceramic, they appear even as hair jewels. They explode in bouquets of pastel pink, prairie green and sky blue, and in games of black, white, beige, navy blue, iridescent gold and silver.
“It’s a serene, ideal, timeless collection, that’s absolutely now, with new shapes”, says Karl Lagerfeld. The garments have essential shapes, the predominant silhouettes are two: the first is long and slender, the dresses follow the body line, lengths run to mid-calf.
The second is more flowing with voluminous bell and corolla shapes, full skirts and the bust enveloped with straight or balloon sleeves.
As a central theme, one construction detail comes up every time: a collar or panel of a dress turned inside out, a rounded fold adorning a jacket, a skirt or a neckline, creating trompe-l’oeil and new volumes.
The braid quite literally melts into the fabric: embroidered into the tweed, the lamé wool or the grain de poudre, it further amplifies the pure line of what Karl Lagerfeld is calling “the new Chanel”.
Certain jackets are lengthened like tunics, while others with no collar but a folded lapel, geometric or asymmetric, adopt a double row of buttons.
Some, belted high, are extended from a peplum or, conversely, shortened like spencer jackets or aged leather jackets, occasionally warmed with feathers.
On the dresses, reversed collars give the impression of a bolero. In tune with the frivolity of 18th century style, the “lingerie” dresses in white pleated chiffon are interspersed with ennobled lace, ruffles and ladder lace.
In the Chanel Spring Summer 2019 Haute Couture collection, master craftsmen unveil their ability resulting from so much patience and savoir-faire: on these dresses, every horizontal blind tuck is completed by hand, taking up to 350 hours of work.
On one organza dress embroidered with flowers made from feathers, the organ pleats that animate the ruffles are gathered thread by thread. An entirely sequinned white dress embroidered with patterns inspired by the porcelain of the Manufacture de Vincennes is a veritable work of art.
The bride breaks all the rules. The stunning model Vittoria Ceretti, beneath a silver sequinned white veil, wears an embroidered bathing suit with a matching swimming hat.
A luxurious and enchanting collection that has amazed the many famous guests in first row with its timeless refinement and extreme elegance.
