Paris: The sky was the limit for Karl Lagerfeld, who re-created an entire airport under Paris’ Grand Palais in Chanel’s blockbuster aviation-themed show at Paris Fashion Week — just as violent protests by real-life aviation workers were taking place elsewhere in the capital.
The show caused many a dropping jaw even among Chanel’s VIP travelers, including model Cara Delevingne, singer Vanessa Paradis and tennis star Maria Sharapova — who told The Associated Press just what she thinks of fashion’s current sportswear mania.
Guests couldn’t quite believe their eyes as they entered one of Lagerfeld’s most ambitious fashion shows yet.
Young Japanese fashionistas bumped into each other to take selfies beneath a giant electronic passenger information table. Hostesses sat at check-in desks plastered in “Chanel Airlines” — with departure lounge chairs sprawling for hundreds of metres.
Destinations on the board — Shanghai, Dallas, Salzburg, Dubai, Tokyo — were a showy check list of all the cities in which Chanel has recently presented collections, highlighting the global nature of one of the world’s most lucrative luxury brands.
But the show itself, bien sur, was in Terminal No. 5, a reference to the brand’s famous perfume.
“The inspiration is travel, long-distance travel to every destination,” Lagerfeld said, sipping mineral water from a silver platter.
The 95 diverse ready-to-wear looks riffed off the voyaging theme — with blue, red and white sweaters slung around shoulders, dresses printed with electronic passenger data in long, loose A-line shapes, comfy check sandals, and bejeweled Chanel suitcases that will — literally — fly off the shelves.
There were even comfy ‘70s flared jeans that Lagerfeld later acknowledged were made from exorbitantly-priced soft crepe.
“I like the idea of beautifully made clothes, used and worn like street wear,” he explained.
Some of the looks in swirling blue, white and red check suffered from their pure exuberance. But the collection had a little bit for every woman from every country in the world.
Lagerfeld defended his decision to host an airline-themed show in Paris when just a few miles away union activists chanting “Naked! Naked!” ripped the suit jackets and shirts off of two Air France executives Tuesday in a violent aviation labour dispute.
“These shows are planned six months in advance ... [Chanel’s] an oracle of the times, but it takes months and months and months. Not 24 hours,” he said.
Images of the shirtless Air France executives splashed around the world.
“It wasn’t very rosy for France’s image,” Lagerfeld said.
