OOOH! Word on the Web is that Lily Allen will wear a Chanel wedding dress. You may remember that she was the face of the Coco Cocoon collection and sang at the Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear show. She’s engaged to Sam Cooper and she was in attendance in Paris at the Chanel Fall-Winter 2011/2012 Ready-to-Wear show. She told WWD: “I’m here to see Karl for my wedding dress.” So exciting! I can not wait to see this!
Images: Socialite Life
For the Chanel Spring 2011 show, Karl took us to the grayscale gardens of the black and white move Last Year in Marienbad. For Fall-Winter 2011/2012, the gray gardens of spring were transformed to black, smoldering volcanic-like rock. Models walked a wooden runway that ran a great length of the Grand Palais with smoke rising from beneath their feet with the images of scorched trees etched (appropriately enough) onto the backdrop. All this set to the backdrop of “Michel Gaubert’s thundering orchestral revision of the Cure’s seminal goth classic ‘A Forest’”. (Style.com) The backdrop and the music set the stage (pun intended) for the somber palette of the Fall-Winter collection.
The Clothing
When I first went through the collection my first thought was “this is real clothing.” Of course all the shows feature real clothing, but this was different. I always gush about how I want everything – and usually it would be to wear to glamorous red carpet events – that I’m not actually going to. But the clothing in this show was stuff I could actually wear – in real life.
Coco Chanel was heavily influenced by menswear but her collections, as well as Karl’s are usually very feminine. This time, the boy meets girl vibe of the show wasn’t very frilly at all. Stretch denim jeans paired with motorcycle boots and utility jumpsuits gave the collection a tough edge. Utility boots with attached wide, wool, slouchy cuffs gave all the looks an otherwise refined look a casual twist. Wide leg trousers with cuffs above the ankle paired with simple shoes (reminiscent of the pointy toe flats we saw at the Spring Couture show) was the most feminine take of the menswear inspired collection.
I’ve always been a fan of jumpsuits and to see so many on the Chanel runway – in so many different fabrications was very exciting. From tweed to quilted leather, the jumpsuit went from “ladies who lunch” to moto-chic. I liked the way Karl played with proportions – lots of shrunken jackets layered over longer jackets (some were two in one), wide, slouchy trousers and big rounded shoulders emphasized small waists. I wouldn’t quite call this a grunge moment, but I think it will be the closest we’ll ever see Chanel get to grunge.
The Accessories
The accessories, as usual, were very exciting for me. There seems to be some new bag silhouettes, a boxy one in an array of sizes with varying lengths of chain strap. It’s a pretty simple leather silhouette with an interesting clasp (not the usual CC). There was also a small, round, quilted leather bag that models held as if they were bouquets. Brooches added embellishment everywhere from waists to hair and it would be a Chanel show without gloves – lace ones! We also found lace in unexpected places like headbands – so pretty! The shoes were interesting and ran the gamut from heels to motorcycle boots. I loved the pointy flat shoes from the Spring Couture show and Lagerfeld brought them back for the ready-to-wear show but this time he added a short heel.
Hair & Makeup
The hair was no frills and it went along with the general theme of the show. Very slightly wavy hair was side-parted and put in slightly disheveled side buns. Hair accessories like brooches and headbands dressed up the otherwise simple looks. Peter Philips did a beautiful job with the makeup and the palette had an overall metallic glow that was a nice contrast to the subdued palette of the clothing. Eyeshadow was silvery with and lips were kept nude to focus the attention on the dramatic eye makeup. Not sure what color was on the nails, it looked a bit like Steel in some photos, and in others it looked like a color similar to Steel but lighter. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I find out!
Overall it was another beautiful collection and what I loved most about this collection was that I could actually see myself wearing these pieces in my actual (not fantasy) life.
The Full Show Video
The Musical Inspiration
The Full Collection
Images: Style
The Chanel Fall-Winter 2011/2012 show was earlier today in Paris. Photos are surfacing online. I’m getting images together to get a review up but in the mean time maybe this will keep you occupied…
Image Source: Olivier Saillant, Chanel News
When I think of Chanel, a few things immediately come to mind: black/white, camelias, the quilted 2.55 handbag, and of course – pearls – lots of them. Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel believed the light-reflecting property of pearls enhanced a woman’s natural beauty by bringing a delicate luminosity to her skin. For Spring 2011, Peter Philips was inspired by Coco Chanel’s love of pearls and so he created Les Perles de Chanel.
We got a preview of the makeup collection during the Spring 2011 Ready-to-Wear show but now we have a full look at all the products. I especially love Le Vernis Black Pearl, the Glossimer in Aragonite, the Shimmering Grey eyeliner and the eyeshadows. Les Perles de Chanel will be available in department stores, Chanel boutiques and on Chanel.com in January 2011.
Images: Chanel
As is usually the case, the set for the Chanel Spring-Summer 2011 Ready-to-Wear show was awe inspiring. I thought it might be tough to outdo a glacier, but Uncle Karl managed to create an atmosphere that brought his creations to life. Inspired by the 1961 French film, Last Year at Marienbad (L’Année dernière à Marienbad), everything from the set design to the clothing was infused by surreal haze of the black and white film.
One of the most dramatic scenes of Last Year at Marienbad takes place in a garden. I’m not sure if it’s the use of Chanel‘s traditional black and white, or trying to replicate the garden in gray-scale from the black and white film (or perhaps a bit of both), but the Chanel set at the Grand Palais was a replica of this garden, complete with fountain.
What makes this film even more sentimental is that Coco Chanel designed the costumes for leading lady, Delphine Seyrig. Dramatic and chic black looks featuring feathers and lace adorned Seyrig in the film and you could see the influence on Karl’s collection. The Spring-Summer 2011 collection featured lots of feathers (in many varieties), as well as black lace. One cloak in particular looks like it came straight out of the film with its epic feather collar.
The trailer for Last Year at Marienbad is below. From what I’ve read, people either love it or hate it, as it’s a “high art” film and is easily misunderstood. Either way, I now have a new movie to add to my Netflix que…
Feminine. Gorgeous. Frayed. The Chanel Spring-Summer 2011 Ready-to-Wear collection is an exercise of beautiful decay. Fabrics were frayed and had a look of wear and tear that added an edge to the otherwise frilly pieces. A color palette of the iconic Chanel black and white with splashes of pastels adorned an otherwise black-scale French garden set at the Grand Palais in Paris. An eighty-piece orchestra accompanied the models as they sashayed to the music of Björk, the Verve, and John “007″ Barry.
Apparel
The traditional Chanel suit was updated with a few twists: 3/4 sleeve and short sleeve swing coats, large lapels and short shorts instead of skirts. The shorts were very tiny and I wonder if real women can pull them off. To me, they seem like they would only look good on supermodels who are super skinny and have legs that go on for days. Many of the looks were embellished with flowers, feathers and/or lace making the looks ultra-feminine and etheral. One of the most exciting parts of the apparel collection was Chanel for bébé – a little boy walking hand-in-hand with a male model donning a Chanel jacket. No official word, but maybe this is a hint at a children’s collection to come.
Accessories
As is always the case for me, the accessories stole the show. My mouth literally watered as I went through the detail shots of the shoe. Uncle Karl never forgets about the dainty digits and his gloves for this collection were awesome. From zippered to cut out, from floral to metal mesh – the gloves in this collection were stunning. The costume jewelry included usual suspects like pearl strands and cuffs but also included a lot of metal chain work with multiple strands. Clear chunky bangle bracelets with pastel colored stripes were fun way to add color to monochrome outfits.
The quilted bags were gorgeous and one of my absolute favorites was the oversize clutch with oversize quilting. Available in several colors, my desire for this bag is only second to my desire for a classic 2.55. The very best accessory totally stole the show – and it was the most unique one of its kind that I have ever seen. A model walked the runway with an oversize umbrella that was shaped like a hat – so simple, yet so GENIUS! This umbrella is easily the best umbrella ever created. I don’t have much to say about the shoes (gasp!) because I didn’t like them 
Beauty
Peter Philips always does a wonderful job of translating Karl Lagerfeld’s sketches into actual looks. A neutral face was highlighted by a very dark smokey eye, the color echoing the black-scale garden set. Hair was straight and pulled back with side or center parts with all parts having a black line drawn in giving us a new use for black pencil eyeliner. Nails were painted in what looked like a dark grey gunmetal color called Black Pearl. More details to come on the Beauté collection.
Keira Knightley, star of the upcoming COCO MADEMOISELLE advertising campaign sequel directed by Joe Wright, wore CHANEL makeup at the CHANEL Spring-Summer 2011 Ready-to-Wear Show in Paris on Tuesday, October 5th, 2010.
Keira looked gorgeous and I love her new bob. I wonder if it was inspired by Coco? Keira’s look was created using the following products – it won’t make us look like her but it will get us as close as we can:
Face: VITALUMIÈRE AQUA Ultra-Light Skin Perfecting Makeup SPF 15 in Beige Rosé – Tendre (available March 2011)
JOUES CONTRASTE Powder Blush in Pink Explosion
Eyes: LES 4 OMBRES Quadra Eye Shadow in Tentation Cuivré
MASCARA INIMITABLE WATERPROOF in Noir
Lips: ROUGE COCO Hydrating Crème Lip Colour in Chintz
What a gorgeous show! Take a look for yourself…
