CHANEL

CHANEL Fall/Winter 2022/23 Haute Couture Collection show finale

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CHANEL’S VIRGINIE VIARD PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE MAISON’S RICH HISTORY WITH A MAJESTIC COUTURE COLLECTION

CHANEL Haute Couture shows are always extraordinary, and the recent one is no exception. The show was held in early July 2022 at the Étrier de Paris, an equestrian centre in the Bois de Boulogne. For this show, the Maison’s artistic director, Virginie Viard, once again called on artist Xavier Veilhan, as well as musician and producer, Sébastian Tellier, to stage her couture collection. Inspired by a camouflage of optical illusions, the setting featured a play on shapes and stripes. The ambassadors and friends of the Maison, including Keira Knightley, Anna Mouglalis, Caroline de Maigret, Sébastien Tellier, Marion Cotillard, Anamaria Vartolomei, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Karidja Touré, to name a few, were seen among the other invitees. Musician Pharrell Williams opened the show with an exclusive track for the House unveiled in a short film by Xavier Veilhan.

This season, CHANEL redefines modern femininity with a nod to the past and an eye on the future through its Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2022-2023 collection. “I have imagined the Fall-Winter 2022/23 Haute Couture show in the continuity of the previous show, leaving

room for experimentation,” says Virginie Viard. “The group of artists who surround me, made up of Xavier Veilhan, Sébastien Tellier, Charlotte Casiraghi and joined by Pharrell Williams and model Vivienne Rohner, allows for this. As does the Haute Couture.”

Inspired by Coco Chanel’s designs from the 1930s, the collection pays tribute to that era with round shoulders, square backs, embroideries with geometric shapes and patterns, but also looks back to the 1970s with the constructivism of a very “graphic” décor. It comes to life in graphic silhouettes nuanced with precious tweeds and sophisticated embellishment. Each piece is a sweet recall of Mademoiselle Chanel’s own personal style. It is light, feminine, designed to be worn, as described by Viard.

“In this new collection, there are suits, long dresses like Mademoiselle Chanel imagined them in the 1930s: fitter to the body even though they have strong shoulders here, and pleated dresses like the wedding dress for instance. And lace too, inlaid, reworked, not embroidered, but repainted. The palette consists of bright green, khaki, beige, pink, lots of black and silver,” says Viard. A tribute to ‘Bijoux de diamants’, the first and only jewellery collection designed by Gabrielle Chanel herself in 1932, precious necklaces serve as adornments to the classic silhouettes. Virginia Viard has a specific reason for this. She chose to use necklaces as ‘celestial elements because they fit with pleats’.

The collection boldly combines long dresses and cowboy boots. On this, Viard says, “These boots also echo the previous Haute Couture show that opened with Charlotte Casiraghi on horseback.”

In addition, this season’s haute couture collection is liberating. The freedom is not only expressed through tweed, but also through large men’s hats and capelines with very wide brims. “I also like to break the graphic approach with a natural look. The clothes remain light, feminine, designed to be worn. I can't see myself doing it any other way,” Viard concludes.