Inspired by pre-war photographs of Gabrielle Chanel, and works from artists Berthe Morisot, Marie Laurencin and Édouard Manet, Virginie Viard paints us colorful collection with an early 1930's sensibility for Chanel Haute Couture.
If anyone can weave a story and expertly bring us along, it is Chanel, and the mood was set pre-show with epic teasers through the lenses of of Sophia Coppola and Mikael Jansen, featuring Margaret Qualley wearing silhouettes from the Fall-Winter 2021/22 Haute Couture collection. Embodying a multitude of muses, the actress and CHANEL ambassador moves through the Palais Galliera, the backdrop for the runway show where a Gabrielle Chanel exhibit is currently on display.
“Because I love seeing colour in the greyness of winter, I really wanted a particularly colourful collection that was very embroidered, something warm.”
Painting is very much a part of the collection, with impressionist strokes evoked in pink and mauve sequin embroidery that seemed to shimmer with motion, the muted rainbow of multicolor striped tweed, and tiny bursts of color scattered throughout the collection like the pompoms on a standout black paletot jacket. English gardens came to life in two piece ensembles with cropped trousers reminiscent of bloomers paired with flowering dresses, and backstage, makeup artist Tom Pecheaux gave models a muted glow with eyelids the color of bruised petals. Damien Boissinot tied back in the house’s signature edge with braided faux-hawks.
“I was also thinking about English gardens. I like to mix a touch of England with a very French style. It’s like blending the masculine and the feminine, which is what I’ve done with this collection too. That twist is very much a part of who I am.”
