Chanel Haute Couture
In a shortest fashion film, evoking the glory days of the legendary Paris club Le Palace, Chanel’s introduced its latest haute couture.
”The collection is distinguished by a desire of opulence, brilliance and sophistication. I had in mind the heads of eccentric princesses, the type of women Karl Lagerfeld liked to accompany to soirees in the Palace,” said Chanel’s couturier Virginie Viard.
The video features five looks on two models, Rianne von Rompaey and Adut Akech.
“I was thinking about a punk princess coming out of ‘Le Palace’ at dawn. With a taffeta dress, big hair, feathers and lots of jewelry. This collection is more inspired by Karl Lagerfeld than Gabrielle Chanel. Karl would go to Le Palace, he would accompany these very sophisticated and very dressed up women, who were very eccentric too,” added Karl’s successor Viard.
“I like working like this, going in the opposite direction of what I did last time. I wanted complexity, sophistication,” stressed Viard, who termed this season’s overall mood as “ultra-rock romanticism”.
Rianne rounds off the clip with a décolleté black dress with an enormous bow, worn with a fab, high jewelry silver pendant, her hair gathered up in spiky posh punk style – in synch with the wild mood of Le Palace. All told, the clip captures the after-hours fetes at Le Palace, where Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol, Roland Barthes and Jean-Paul Goude all rubbed shoulders and Grace Jones sang La Vie en Rose in dry ice perched on a Harley Davidson.
Time to restart a new Chanel empire named Virginie Viard
“Her aura is still hanging about the company.” ~ Virginie Viard on Coco Chanel
More than 30 years, the designer Virginie Viard has largely kept out of the spotlight. The right and the left arm of Karl Lagerfeld as he once said.
People were becaming familiar with Virginie Viard who walked along Karl Lagerfeld in the closing stages. Just last in January, Spring Haute Couture – Summer 2019 marked the first time Virginie Viard closed the show without Karl Lagerfeld.
She still remains a mystery to the fashion world. Virginie Viard joined the French house in 1987 only four years after Karl Lagerfeld was appointed creative director. Viard was a trainee and was responsible to take charge of embroidery work in the Haute Couture team.
Virginie Viard followed Karle when he moved to Chloé taking position of creative director at this house in 1992. Next five years Viirginie Viard always followed Karl even when he returned to Chanel. She was appointed as a senior fashion supervisor taking over ready-to-wear garments in 2000.
In Netflix’s 7 Days Out documentary, Karl Lagerfeld once said: ” Virginie is the most important person, not only myself but also Chanel. She is my “right hand”. If we don’t meet, we’ll talk all day over the phone . ”
Starting her career as an assistant to costume designer Dominique Borg, Viard made a mark when creating costumes for famous cinematic works, Three Colors: Blue (1993), Three Colors: White (1994)
Her inspiration comes from non-fashion elements such as music, drama, collaborators, exhibitions or even son’s homework.
In one of her interviews, Viard explained: “ I always have an expectation for fashion, however, it is not something that inspires me. The current working style is still no different from 20 years ago. Everything still works smoothly, because teamwork is the most important thing in the design studio. I don’t feel like a director. ”