Deauville. Chanel AW24

March 7, 2024March 7, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Virginie Viard presented a confident and absolutely charming collection, one that made even the biggest nay-sayers of her Chanel change their minds (even a bit). Inspired by Deauville, the town in Normandy that had a great importance for Coco Chanel’s career, the autumn-winter 2024 is a beautiful ode to its breezy, bourgeoisie ambience. In the 1920s, the brand’s founder started her business as a milliner in a shop in the seaside resort. Hence the symbolic connection Viard drew with the turned-back brims of the the sun hats. Her translations of Chanel’s earliest, revolutionary jersey signatures flowed into state-of-the-art modern knitwear in multiple versions of belted cardigan pajama-like trouser suits, and made sense of the ease of the house tweeds in long-line coats and, later, the fluttery, 1930s-via-1970s chiffon prints. All the cognac-brown shearling outerwear and suede boots are just so chic. It felt as if Viard had truly found an unforced connection with the original intention of Chanel – to make chic clothes easy for contemporary women.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Margaret. Chanel SS24 Couture

January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“He met Margaret on a rooftop, she was wearin’ white,

And he was like, ‘I might be in trouble'”.

Of course, the moment I saw Margaret Qualley stepping out on the Chanel haute couture runway dressed in all-white, I had this Lana Del Rey song on my mind. Dedicated to Jack Antonoff, her friend and long-time collaborator, and his wife, Margaret, the song is an ode to hope and love, and finding answers for big questions in the right time. This Virginie Viard couture line-up, very unfairly hated by most of the critics, encapsulated that mood very well, and was yet another endeavor into a sort of unhinged femininity that isn’t exactly what the mass media keep on expecting from her Chanel. Largely inspired by ballet and the zsa zsa zsou feeling of falling in love, the collection ran from white to fondant pastels and back again. The connection to dance was flickering through the silhouette of a tweed twinset of sorts – a cropped jacket whose matching under-piece was shaped like a leotard. Other highlight: a nipped-waist, full-skirted black coat-dress puffed out on a stiff white ballerina tutu. Then, a pink chiffon dress with a shirred bodice and flyaway, textile-arty bows mixed up in its skirts. The Chanel woman is a girl at heart, but not definitely not because of a TikTok trend, but in a Sofia Coppola-kind-of-way. The finale, of course, was the Chanel bride. She had on a tiny silver-white tunic for a dress with poetic balloon chiffon sleeves and was trailing yards of white tulle as a train. Romantic, decorative, but grounded in a kind of contemporary reality. That’s Virginie Viard’s style all over.

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Frazzled Tweedy Woman. Chanel Pre-Fall 2024

December 9, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

When Virginie Viard is inspired, she nails it. Her latest Chanel métiers d’art collection presented in Manchester was just brilliant and full of wit. It’s clear that the city and its culture has truly stimulated the designer. Alive with a vibrant pop spirit born in Manchester and kept alive across the decades, the show embraced the creative dialogue between Great Britain and the brand – a dialogue that was started by Coco Chanel herself when she brought British tweed to Paris. The collection shimmers and shines with playful nods to British music culture, and it’s also an ode to the frazzled British woman all layered up in chunky knits and long scarves. Legendary bands like Oasis and Joy Division call Manchester home, after all, and the models – with their pearls, slept-in black eyeliner and side bangs – appeared as though they might have just washed off a hand stamp after sneaking back from a show at Pip’s Disco. “Manchester is the basis of a music culture that has changed the face of the world,” sais Viard. To play off of the “vibrant pop spirit” that she infused in the house’s tweeds and quilted leather, models were given smudged-up reverse eyeliner that read like slept-in makeup after a night of chasing afterparties. At dusk, as the looks strolled down the umbrella-dotted outdoor runway on Thomas Street to the sounds of Soft Cell and New Order, this appeared to be one of the finest Chanel collections by Viard to date.

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In Search of Character. Chanel SS24

October 6, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Virginie Viard wanted her Chanel collection to feel effortless, but in the end, it appeared to be cluttered with too many ideas. Her vision for Chanel is at its best when she goes minimal – that wasn’t the case this time. “This collection is an ode to liberty and to movement, and tells a story that has its origins in the gardens of the villa Noailles,” the designer said of her spring-summer 2024 offering. The designer referenced the property – which was designed by the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1923 for Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, friends of Coco Chanel’s – which sits up in the hills of Hyères in southern France. “Facing south, the villa’s volumes and outdoor spaces – from its cubist chequered garden to its sunken flower beds – light up the SS24 collection with an intense vitality,” the show notes read. “The exhilaration of light and colour, the profusion of geometric patterns, the play of contrasting asymmetries, patchworks, lines, checks and stripes give rhythm to a collection that sets out its own idea of elegance and insouciance.” These prints featured throughout the collection, while silhouettes were breezy, heels were flat and everything was styled with a relaxed attitude. As Cathy Horyn wrote in her The Cut review, Viard knows how to use the Chanel codes, but she’s having a hard time creating a truly appealing character.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Allure. Chanel AW23 Couture

July 5, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Virginie Viard‘s autumn-winter 2023 collection for Chanel was her best haute couture moment ever. It was just so charming, effortless and simply beautiful. Inspired by a Parisian allure, the collection unveils a portrait of a delicate yet bold femininity. But the creative director also managed to present couture in a new, refreshing light. Lead by Caroline De Maigret, the models strolled nonchalantly in their block-heeled Mary Janes, just as if wearing haute couture to walk the dog or pick up some flowers at the market were most the most normal thing in the world. Showed on the riverbanks of the Seine, the garments were adorned with embroidered fruits and flowers motifs reminiscent of the still-lives dear to pictural arts. Silhouettes played with masculine codes, mixing together rigour and asymmetry, a self-confident and discreet figure. Among them was a navy flecked tweed coat dress which stood out because of its edging of pale chiffon ruffles because what you’re also craving to see at Chanel haute couture is the wonder of its savoir-faire. These techniques need to be seen close up, and explained in detail to understand the skills, the hours and the arcane refinements of the materials. At a distance, some of it did shine out across the quai: the gilded, patinated surface of a skirt suit, the 3D chiffon flowers in a dress glimpsed inside a plain coat, more flowers embroidered in multicolored sequins on the eveningwear. In the finale, a pale café-au-lait chiffon party dress was lightly whipped into ruffles at the neck and finished with a black bow – a youthful confection that could only come from the Chanel’s atelier flou.