“No Fifties, no Sixties, no Seventies. Just what I like.”
-Karl Lagerfeld, WWD

Chanel presented its Haute Couture spring-summer 2012 collection at the Grand Palais in Paris on Tuesday and the airplane window hint Chanel dropped on Monday was confirmed.  The Grand Palais was transformed into the interior of a “commercial space shuttle flight that, during the course of the show, left the Earth’s atmosphere and headed for space. Toward the finale, the Earth actually passed overhead, across the clear dome that allowed passengers a view of the starry sky outside.” (Style.com)

Having brought in an iceberg to the Grand Palais, surely bringing in and replicating the interior of an airplane must have been a piece of cake.  The set or “aircraft” featured a 164-foot aisle, double-C monogrammed carpet, modern seating – all complete with a bar cart (I wonder if they had double-C ice cubes?).

Image from Chanel

Air travel not only inspired the set – but the color palette of the collection – a palatte Karl Lagerfeld called a “monochrome rainbow” though he was quick to point out that “I don’t have the blues.” (WWD).  Every shade of blue was represented – from nearly translucent and almost white to the darkest of midnight blues.

The true innovation of the show however came in the form of the new silhouette Karl showed: exaggerated boat neck collars, large bell sleeves, long skirts and hyper-dropped waists.  Known for playing with androgyny and borrowing from the boys (a legacy started by Mademoiselle herself), Karl said the very low waists (at about thigh level) were meant to look “like boys whose jeans are slipping off.” (Style.com).  The show came to a traditional close with the showing of a wedding dress though there was nothing traditional about the dress at all.  I love how Karl can adopt a new silhouette each season that looks completely new and unexpected, yet so classic and chic that it looks like it came from the Chanel lexicon.

I wish I could have seen the pieces up close because the amount of detail and workmanship cannot be appreciated from photos taken from so far away.  But even with the photos, you can tell that the garments are dazzling.  The embroidery and beading alone are gorgeous.  I also would have loved to see a close up of the shoes and the hair pieces.  Speaking of hair, it seems Alice Dellal is more than just the face of the upcoming Chanel Boy Bag campaign – she was also the muse for the hairstyles worn on the runway.

I’m hoping to receive more detail images of the beauty – curious to know about new beauty products and of course – nail polish!  Stay tuned.

Thank you for flying with Chanel.

All images except as indicated from Style.com