Saint-Tropez. Chanel Resort 2011

April 21, 2023April 21, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

On Monday, May 1st, the 2023 Met Gala will take place. This year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “A Line of Beauty,” will celebrate the oeuvre and life of Karl Lagerfeld. The exhibition will see Andrew Bolton and Wendy Yu, curators in charge, examine the work of Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019). Throughout his lifetime, Lagerfeld worked at prominent fashion houses such as Balmain, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel, in addition to founding his namesake brand. More than 150 pieces will be on display in the exhibition, many of which will be accompanied by Lagerfeld’s sketches. In the following days, I will look back at my all-time favorite Chanel collections, designed by the one & only Karl. Hope some of these magnificent looks will end up on the red carpet on the first Monday in May…

The resort 2011 scene was like something out of a quintessential Riviera movie. With the sun setting over the sea, hundreds of Chanel’s invited guests sitting in the red wooden chairs of Saint-Tropez’s famous Sénéquier, and many more onlookers piling onto balconies and pressing against barricades, Natasha Poly, Anja Rubik, Abbey Lee, and the rest of Karl Lagerfeld’s cast arrived at Quai Jean Jaurès via speedboat. And like the carefree starlets and jet-setters they were channeling, the models traipsed down the street-cum-runway often barefoot, wearing 70s-inspired diaphanous caftans, long crocheted dresses, ruffle-lapelled silk jersey trouser suits, and patchwork denim skirts. Tanned and toned midriffs peeked out beneath a cropped sweater here or a button-down there, its hems tied in a saucy bow. Freja Beha Erichsen’s white silk Mick Jagger tuxedo delivered some sun-drenched rock & roll to the French idyllic. The Rolling Stones front man, of course, married Bianca in just such an outfit in Saint-Tropez’s town hall back in 1971. Magdalena Frąckowiak, doing the brilliant Brigitte Bardot cosplay, danced her way toward the photo pit in a black and white checked maillot. And for the finale, there was Georgia May Jagger, with her dad’s tune “Let’s Spend the Night Together” for an accompaniment. The model got to take a spin in a beaded minidress and thigh-high boots on the back of a tricked-out Harley with Sebastien Jondeau. To be sure, there was a nostalgic mood to the affair. What prompted these witty nods to the past from a designer who famously had no patience for such fusty concepts as the “good old days“? The location surely had something to do with it. Though Lagerfeld pointed out that “Chanel was spotted here once in ’34 by Colette,” Saint-Tropez feels much more like his kind of town. “I spent many years of my life here,” he said. “I know Saint-Tropez like I know Paris. The collection is very casual, very down-to-earth.” Key, of course, is that lightness of touch, the sense of enjoyment and ease.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Chanel AF. Chanel SS’97 Couture

April 19, 2023April 21, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

First up is the stunning spring-summer 1997 haute couture collection. It’s a Lagerfeld collection that can be simply summed up as “Chanel af“. Behind the scenes, Amanda Harlech, a trusted arbiter of taste, jumped from Dior to Chanel just in time to put finishing touches on a collection of what Karl Lagerfeld described as nonexistent dresses and exploded shoes. “It’s hysterical Chanel,” the designer said. Harlech expanded on that, telling Hamish Bowles, “It’s about Chanel proportions and luxury pushed to absolute nervous-breakdown extremes!” Just as the rooms he showed in at the Ritz were veiled with tulle, so Lagerfeld wrapped his creations in luxury, replacing buttons with real pearls or diamond camellia clip brooches. Adding a sense of fun were the dramatic headpieces by Philip Treacy, some of which bobbed atop heads like antennae tuned into chic. There were LBDs galore, along with wide-legged pantsuits, however the “unbearable lightness of being” Lagerfeld was after was to be found in the evening looks, many with silhouettes that nodded to the late ’20s and early ’30s—Coco Chanel’s own heyday. Shalom Harlow wore the collection’s pièce de résistance: a feather-white strapless confection, which looked as if it were crafted from air. Over a stem of pale chiffon, the atelier had constructed a 3-D “cage” of many, many camellias made of sequins, and then cut the fabric ground away so that it resembled a Wilson Bentley photograph of a snowflake or the tracery of a stained glass window. Possibly, that’s one of the chicest collection ever in fashion history.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Charles James.

May 5, 2014 | Design & Culture by Ed

“Charles who?” was the general reaction when the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that its next fashion exhibition, opening May 8, would be Charles James: Beyond Fashion. No, the designer, who worked from the twenties through his death in the seventies, is not as infamous as the punks or as well known as McQueen—but he’s no less important, fascinating, or even exciting. James, a flamboyant character who, born in England, spent his most productive years in New York, was, along with Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga, one of the most forward-thinking, innovative designers of his time. You have him to thank for the cupless bra, the puffer coat, and that zipper in the back of your evening gown. The designer was best known as a master of sculpture—instead of fitting to a mannequin, he would craft epic forms, inspired by his background in millinery and architecture, and structure his gowns around them.”