Chanel couture: Tulle and transparence

Virginie Viard entitled Chanel’s latest haute couture collection The Button, but there was nothing remotely buttoned up about these clothes.

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Right from the opening look, when actor and brand ambassador Margaret Qualley opened the show in a short creamy white four-button Chanel jacket, finished at the neck with a Catherine de’ Medici ruffle, and a micro mini. 

Like almost every model, she wore silvery white tights, paired with see-through tulle minis. Yards of tulle also sprouted from the next looks – two super light coat dresses in ecru wool bouclé, and a Chanel jacket finished with faux pockets.

The first silvery white evening dress was semi transparent, a look heightened as it was worn on a black model.
 
Classic summer suits in rose, lemon and violet were finished with a second tulle embroidered in strass, beads and crystals. Evening gowns were cut away to reveal acres of thigh.
 
In a season where couturiers are dialing back the grandeur, Chanel’s easier youthful take on couture seemed in synch with our times. Well-targeted at a new generation of couture clients with personal trainers and fitness regimes. 
 
In effect, in terms of length, this was the shortest Chanel collection in decades, and a far racier take on couture. 
 
“I really wanted tulle, legs and lightness. And summer and something vaporous,” enthused Viard in a backstage where Ines de la Fressange, Blanca Li and Julie Gayet waited to congratulate her.
 

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The tulle also looked ideal for the setting, the latest brilliant set from Chanel. Built inside the Palais Royale Ephémère exhibition space behind the Eiffel Tower, this season it was an immense circle, with walls finished in tulle curtains. On the ceiling a 12-meter-wide button, which tilted down to indicate the show would begin.
 
Chanel had telegraphed the concept two days before the show in a three-minute video also called The Button starring Qualley, with a cameo from Naomi Campbell. Directed by Dave Free, with music by Kendrick Lamar, about a young fan of the brand whose Chanel jacket had lost a button, necessitating her to take an ocean liner and steam train to Paris headquarters at 31 rue Cambon. Where she is guided into see Coco Chanel – played by, with the deepest of voices, Anna Mouglalis – who explains the gal’s mother a generation before had deliberately not sewn the button properly in order that she come and work for Coco too.
 
“It’s about beauty within the imperfections of time,” explains Coco, neatly summing up Viard’s design philosophy.
 
Inside the darkened entrance to the show, stood a two-meter-tall spool of thread with three-meter-long needle; nearby a five-meter-long silver scissors. Symbolizing the whole métier of couture, and how only the seamstresses of Paris, known as “les petits mains”, can truly create great couture.
 
Qualley led out the cast at the finale, almost giddy with excitement, and looking very at home on a Chanel beige deep-pile carpet.
 
“We adore Margaret Qualley. She is a great actress, and before that was a dancer, which was another inspiration in this show,” added Viard.