06 Jul 2010, Posted by admin in Fashion, 0 Comments

hear chanel couture’s lion themed collection roar

For one thing Karl Lagerfeld is over the little black dress, he’s over gowns (proclaiming they are hard to get in and out of cars in) and he’s over eccentricity for the sake of making a statement. His latest haute couture collection for Chanel spoke directly to the customer (Chanel is one of the only houses that is said to actually make money from couture)–to the wives of Russia’s oil barons, Thailand’s royalty, China’s nouveau riche and the Middle East’s big spenders who think nothing of ordering 20 couture looks in a half an hour (these women actually exist, I’ve met them). The collection was decidedly rich and wearable, which will no doubt please the women who can afford these clothes. There were day suits, bolero jackets paired with voluminous skirts and rich swing coats fit for czarinas–bejeweled and trimmed in sable. Cocktail dresses were embroidered to the hilt, feeling heavy to the eye, with some resting just above the knee and some falling mid-calf.  Evening came with sequins, transparent lace and tapestry patterns. Mid-calf boots were consistent through the show–some with decadent pearls, some in gold leather and others embroidered with beads. Model Iris Strubegger (in a beaded white wedding suit complete with a train) closed the show escorted by male model Baptiste Giabicni who was wearing a lion’s head (a reference to Beauty and the Beast, Mark the Evangelist?) The lion was an omnipresent–on the invitations, with the 20 metres long and 12 metres high lion sculpture set (an homage to a much smaller piece that Coco Chanel has in her Rue Cambon apartment to this day and the fact that her astrological sign is the Leo) and with the lioness manes sported by the show’s models whose hair was unkempt and easy going. Sure the clothes were beautiful, but what I want to know is what’s going to happen to this giant lion sculpture? I think it would make a nice addition to Lagerfeld’s Brittany estate, I’m just saying.

–Leah Bourne