And after the breathtaking elaboration of the recent Chanel sets—who can forget the airplane interior, the derelict theater, the Mediterranean forest?—Karl’s gleaming white, futurist “Cambon Club” (complete with white-clad orchestra) came as something of a palate cleanser, a metaphor for this collection of shimmering lightness and inventive beauty.
“There are two tendencies,” Karl explained during a weekend preview that provided an unmatched opportunity to study those remarkable textiles and embellishments in the hand, “very androgyne and boyish, and very feminine. But no stiletto, no platforms, no Louboutins!” Instead, the clothes had a uniquely modern feeling as each look was matched with flat sneakers (made by the custom shoemaker Massaro, naturally) in patchworks of fabrics and embroidery—“It gives it a different attitude,” explained Karl—and during the show, his girls were encouraged to run and skip down the grand horseshoe staircase, suggesting something of the sense of liberating freedom that was Coco Chanel’s great contribution to early-twentieth-century fashion. “I think it’s quite chic, the couture run, no?” posited Karl.
That feminine Chanel girl wore tailored suits and dresses as crisply defined as Courrèges’ little sixties numbers that emphasized the shapely waist with form-fitting, shaped midriff panels, and jackets cropped short enough to expose them. The tomboy wore an all-in-one with shorts, or tunics layered over second-skin pants, and even a playful take on footballers’ knee pads, and fanny packs.
The palette was pale and iridescent—tweeds threaded with metallics, mica flecks, and shining ribbons that suggested light through clouds or the inside of abalone shells—with a dash of sorbet pastels.
A trio of dark evening dresses in ballet-skirted tulle, meanwhile, had tutu peplums of feathers and reflective strips like seventies fiber-optic lamps; for Karl they looked “like some wild insect, a scarab—or a mean bird of paradise!”
And those dresses just kept romping down the stairs, a testament to the skill treasury of the legendary Chanel ateliers. The short day and cocktail clothes segued into midi-length dresses, and eventually to body-skimming, trained sheaths with a New Age flapper vibe. Each of these finale gowns was dusted with embroideries no less spectacular for being subtle and light as air, each a small miracle of workmanship.
Chanel Fall 2014 Couture
Chanel Resort 2015
Chanel Fall 2014
Chanel Pre-Fall 2014
Chanel Spring 2014
Chanel Fall 2013 Couture