ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories: Louis XIV

Friday, 1 June 2012

Versailles Miscellaneous | CHANEL Cruise 2013

CHANEL Mood - Fountains of youth for Chanel at the Château de Versailles

Chanel has set the tone for its Cruise 2013 collection by selecting the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines at the Château de Versailles as the setting for its runway. Adorned with shells, rock formations and fountains, the grove was designed in 1677 by France’s Sun King, Louis XIV (a charismatic monarch, lover of Versailles, friend to the arts and a man of many talents – like a certain Karl?), and was constructed by his gardener André Le Nôtre. The result is a youthful, playful, elegant and whimsical collection, modern yet Baroque at the same time.

The gardens were filled with the winds of a grunge fantasy on Monday evening, May 14th, set to the sounds of harpsichord music and electro Michael Jackson remixes. Inspired by the rebellious spirit of La Fronde, the collection boasted bob-styled wigs in an array of pastels or in jet black, chopped high at the back of the head (bringing the infamous guillotine to mind) and worn over long ponytails tied with ribbons. Even more radical was the dramatic makeup of these young party-girl marchionesses wandering through boxwood mazes and sighing gardens in a pale Twilight-inspired palette with tiny interlocking CC beauty marks under their eyes.

Les Marie Antoinettes' de CHANEL

However, the truly revolutionary look of this Cruise collection made its triumphant entrance as the first models appeared: edgy “luxury street wear” platform sneakers and lace ruffled crinoline split skirts, an artistic blend of classicism and street style. Knee-length pedal pushers that button snugly below the knee showcased movement, youthfulness and lightweight style. Paired with gold platform sneakers, these soft denim breeches are one of Karl Lagerfeld’s fetish items. Gold-embroidered sleeveless denim jackets with military details created an opulent, offbeat look while white tweed jackets braided with patriotic colors of scarlet pink, blue and white were an ultra-trendy nod to the country’s revolutionary heritage.

The favorite looks included palazzo pants paired with three-quarter sleeve lace-adorned jackets, a white blouse with gigot sleeves peeping out from underneath a tailored jacket, mini-skirts swishing with every step, gracefully noble waistcoats, and an edgy rock-inspired black jacket embroidered with sequins and zipped up over a short marquisette skirt. The pleated gold skirt paired with a white sweatshirt fitted at the waist was simply regal, while colored acetate inlays and applications on virgin-white dresses summarized Chanel’s take on how to successfully blend eighteenth-century style with twenty-first-century materials. Upon leaving the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines at dusk after this aristo-rock ball infused with youth, tenderness and frivolity (the ingredients for enduring nostalgia), we were reminded of the words of Jean de La Bruyère: “The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others.” Chanel, indeed.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credits/Source: CHANEL

Photography by Olivia Da Costa & Olivier Saillant for © CHANEL

CHANEL Cruise 2012/13: Cara Delevingne photographed by Karl Lagerfeld

More CHANEL Cruise To Love ...

'CHANEL Cruise 2012/13 Beauty Spot'

'CHANEL Cruise 2012/13 Ouverture'

Friday, 18 May 2012

Behind The Scenes Of CHANEL Cruise 2012/13

Karl Lagerfeld was exultant. Twelve months of planning for Chanel's 2013 Cruise presentation and, the week before the big day, current events conspired to completely recontextualize the show, injecting a delicious layer of irony into the time and place. His succinct summation, "Versailles in a Socialist France", said it all. Up until last week's election, which restored a left-wing government to power, Lagerfeld's collection was a gleeful mash-up of hip-hop edge à la his favorite Azealia Banks or M.I.A. and Louis Quatorze's eighteenth-century court at Versailles, the focal point of a period that history recognizes as France's last Golden Age, with Louis the Sun King at its pinnacle. Soundmeister Michel Gaubert dubbed the hybrid "Ghetto royale." He obliged Karl with an M.I.A. track whose refrain, "Live fast, die young/Bad girls do it well," might have been Marie Antoinette's musical signature if she'd lived a couple centuries later. She might even have joined Alice Dellal and Karl Lagerfeld, who played an exuberantly retro-punk set at the post-show cocktail.

Enjoy CHANEL Cruise 2012/13 Fashion Show at the end of this post!

LoL, Andrea

Lagerfeld has proved himself a master of this high-low hybrid in recent times. Here, formal eighteenth-century details, like panniers and fichus, were re-created in casual twenty-first-century fabrics chambray, tech denims, even plastics-dressed up with frothy lace ruffles and cuffs, and dressed down with gold platform trainers and short shorts. Occasionally awkward though it may have been, the lightness, the girlishness, of the clothes had a balletic quality, reflective perhaps of Louis' own love of dance. Lagerfeld said he wanted something floating and frivolous. "Frivolity is a healthy attitude," he said after the show. "I know people who were saved by frivolity."

The show took place around three of the furiously spouting fountains for which Versailles is famous. Guests then trained through the grounds to the cocktail at the Bosquet des Rocailles, where Louis staged theatrical productions. (Could it be true that Marie Antoinette's "farm," the private playpen where she'd go to play-act ordinary folks, was just through the trellised fence?) Speaking of imperial whim, look no further than the gall of the guy who persisted with plans for a ginormous outdoor spectacle while the heavens were blessing Paris with six weeks of nonstop rain. Guess what? Glorious Sol came out on cue. So who's the Sun King now?

But the levity of that declaration was lent some provocative weight by the election. Clearly equating President-elect François Hollande's incoming government with a general shriveling of the French jeu d'esprit (although that is, in itself, something of a myth), Lagerfeld went on to say, "I don't want the rest of the world to think of France as a sad, gloomy country. They won't come to buy our products." A worrying prospect for someone who never fails to crowd his catwalk with an overabundance of clothing and accessories. "Too many ideas," wailed Inès de la Fressange jokily as she leaned in to bestow a congratulatory kiss. "Too creative." Lagerfeld glazed one tweed in gold, sequined another in pale blue, embroidered a tiny sundress with gold bullion, and applied the most delicate floral beading to snowy white handkerchief linen. Watercolor florals suggested Watteau maidens; male models Brad Kroenig and Jon Kortajarena were dressed in britches as their swains. "It's nothing that literal," Lagerfeld insisted, but the Rococo echoes added some charm.