Chanel’s equestrian chic

The charm of a chic, deluxe amazon. Keeping in mind a famous quote by Mademoiselle Gabrielle Coco Chanel: «True elegance must allow the body to move freely». A muse in her mind, Charlotte Casiraghi, protagonist of the movie accompanying the show and entering on horseback into the large hippodrome-installation created by artist Xavier Veilhan. The musical notes of Sébastien Tellier in the air, engaged in a live performance that lasts for the entire Maison Chanel’s couture show which, for the first time in the era of Virginie Viard, chose to collaborate with an artist (Xavier Veilhan worked in the French pavilion of the 2017 Venice Biennale, ed).

In the giant space of the Grand Palais Éphemère a path halfway between a hippodrome and a mini golf was recreated, with the minimalist structure of inflatable elements, raw wood, unsullied sand and magnified musical instruments, beyond those big circles of leds animating a rarefied atmosphere with soft lighting to recreate a gentle dawning. The spirit of Étienne de Balsan, polo player and horse breeder, who was Mademoiselle’s lover for six years, hovers on the collection. Besides making her discover the equestrian world, of which Chanel became a great devotee (the first horse pants she wore were a present to her by de Balsan, who had them tailor-made, creating a minor scandal at the time), Étienne de Balsan was also the first who financed her adventure in fashion. He helped her cementing a universe in which the boundaries between male and female were destroyed.

That spirit of nonconformist simplicity returns in the SS 2022 haute couture season, which smells of the 1920s, having been born from a creative cross between the primordial aesthetic codes of Mademoiselle Gabrielle Coco Chanel, the charming chic elaborated by Karl Lagerfeld and the composed simplicity of Virginie Viard. «The idea for the show's décor stems from a long-standing desire to be able to work with Xavier. His references to constructivism remind me of Karl's work, considering that the set-up was created with some references to the avant-garde of the 20s and 30s," the designer explained. «Also, Xavier, whose creative universe is populated by horses, wanted to collaborate with Charlotte Casiraghi, who is an incredible horsewoman. Well, he, along with Charlotte and Sébastien, created the sort of Chanel family that I love surrounding myself with».

The result is a parade of typical Chanel creations, sublimated in the finale's mariée: delicately proud, she carries a small bouquet of camellias tinged with deep blue, wears a precious crown of endless ribbons and sports a tunic of slippery proportions, essential in its simplicity. The whole show has a vague hint of 20s, in the fluid lines of the tunics but also in the oversized bows that decorate the cloud-effect tulle skirts. To mark the day are the codes of the double C brand, with the precious bouclé and the black & white patterns, or the unexpected overlapping of linear and pareo skirts worn in ensembles. The precious broderie, the light feathering, the constructivist camellias, the metallic lace or the deluxe beading on jackets represent the few exceptions of frivolity in a season that preaches composure. Starting with the shoes: the classic two-tone ones created by Mademoiselle that she considered “the last frontier of elegance" and that in this collection become the seal of a delicately whispered chic. «The references in this collection belong to Gabrielle Chanel’s world. This season has been a kind of conversation galloping between time deferment», the designer concluded.

Judgment. «Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance». Mindful of this mantra by Mademoiselle Coco, Virginie Viard brings one of her most intense and personal collections to the runway. She gives Chanel an understated charm and a refined shyness. She creates a more intimate and reserved tale, as she is herself. She gives Rue Cambon’s Maison a quintessentially Chanel collection, preferring a whispered luxury and a more aristocratic and simply chic idea of couture. (All rights reserved)