CHANEL's Underwater Life - Behind The Scenes

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Paris Fashion Week - CHANEL Spring/Summer 2012 Collection

Jules Verne? Wes Anderson? Georges Méliers? Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? This stunning recreation of the ocean floor, this immaculate white landdscape of seaweed, stingrays, sharks, and shells, daring the dream with candor and an optimistic, rather than desolate, idea of fashion.

It was a masterpiece: deceptively simple but never dull. Mermaids in slinky sheath dresses were not on the program. Instead, there were more youthful and light silhouettes than ever. Lots of long, tapering limbs, knee-revealing dresses and skirts, luxurious and loose knitwear, wonderful white sweaters worn over full skirts, the every image of elegance without pretension.

Mini-mini shorts in laminated denim worn under unstructered jackets, the little top embroidered like a bed of sea anemones, jackets sensually cut along the small of the back, the dress embroidered with bronze-colored scales. The collection seems to capture the shimmering light of the sun on the waves. The tweed is iridescent with Lurex and mother-of-pearl applications chiseled onto suits. Extensive work on the materials reinforces the modernity and the energy of the profiles: rhodoid, neoprene and plastic accentuate the feeling of lightness. A silicon lace biker jacket designed by Sophie Hallette is complimented by sinewy black plastic piping for the ultimate refined look. It is though two hands had dived into the sea foam and brought back a jacket. Subtle humour permeates the collection. The dress with embroidered shoulders bears a trompe-l'oeil of lacy seaweed below the waistline. Karl Lagerfeld has been more fun than ever!

Heel shaped like coral branches or beeded shells, earrings and rings in the in the shape of sea urchins, shell-shaped clutch bags, rectangular quilted bags enchained like certain packages recovered by the sea customs ... all enraptured the audience. The haunting black and white or silver colored ankle boot gave movement and a subtle touch of the Swinging Sixties in London to the shapes. The evening was somptuous and youthful, with lengths remaining above the ankle, diaphonous volumes, lace, gemstones, sparkling embroidery, a spirits in-keeping with both the celestial and the aquatic. 

Pearl, the iconic motif of the House of Chanel, was in its elements! Assembled in delicate belts on some short dresses, it transformed into a sort of skin embroidery to create almost surreal alignment down the spite. Lightness, inventiveness and refinement for an intensely invigorating collection that ends with a Botticelli-style appearance of the singer Florence Welch, emerging from a giant shell to sing, accompanied by a harp player.

CHANEL Spring/Summer 2012 Collection


Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Press Release CHANEL by Elisabeth Quin

Photo Credit/Source: CHANEL

Photography by Benoit Peverelli

& 

Yannis Vlamos/GoRunway

Enjoy my previous post featuring the CHANEL Summer 2012 Collection
& Fashion Show - 

 'The Undersea World by Karl Lagerfeld'

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Dreaming Of You .... Haute Couture!

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Haute Couture, Haute Culture ...

Just before starting my Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York editorials,  I received some new and fabulous Backstage Candids by Chanel Haute Couture ... enjoy! LoL, Andrea

"Haute Couture is woven from dreams, gold, hard work, and excellence. It is an ode to the artisans of luxury, a willed madness, a fabulous dinosaur, and a glittering Atlantis that dazzles us twice a year, bringing reassurance that in a globalized world of robotic manufacturing, a sanctuary still remains, a place where clothes are lovingly created by hand over hundreds, even thousands of hours.

The term "Haute Couture" may be legally restricted, but its poetic inspirations knows no bounds! Today in France, Haute Couture continues to sustain artisans, workshops and suppliers who pass on their unique specialits skills to new generations. Chanel has acquired and fused several of these rare workshops together, such as embroidery from Lesage and feather work from Lemarié, ensuring that their knowledge is handed down and their artistic crafts survive. ... 

Haute Couture is a French national treasure, yet it was invented by an Englishman, Charles Worth, at the time of Napoleon III. Barely a century after it had beheaded its king, France quickly understood that luxury could act as an inimitable ambassador for French expertise. After Worth, couturiers such as Callot, Patou, Poiret, Vionnet and Lanvin continued to dress women beautifully, without always taking the shape of their bodies into account ...

 At that moment, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, known as Coco, arrived on the scene with her hands in her pockets and a cigarette between her lips. She was surrounded by an air of nonchalance, eternal allure and insane elegance in her wonderfully fluid jersey suits and dresses, which went on to represent a real liberation for women. It seemed a natural step but someone had to invent it, someone had to have the confidence and the talent to undrestand what women wanted, longed for, even before they knew it themselves. Was Chanel a revolutionary, a prophet? Absolutely!

The Chanel Spring-Summer 2011 Haute Couture collection has created a dazzling between the 1920s and the 21st century. Low waists, slender busts and delicate feet encased in ballerina shoes with transparent ribbons have been combined with the colors of clouds or pearls and waves of shimmering spangles, while embroidered shirts have been paired with Couture jeans that lengthen the legs to infinity ... It is a younger look that is lighter than ever, rejecting any kind og bourgeois haeviness. The collection is characterized by total grace and luxurious materials that make their mark with skilled understatement, recapturing a style that came as second nature to Coco Chanel ..."

Photo Credit/Source: Chanel

Photography (Backstage) by Benoit Peverelli;
Fashion Show Photography by Marcio Madeira

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