A wooden eco lodge, a casino and an enchanted forest are just a few of the fantastical, breath-taking and minutely detailed settings that Chanel has created within the Grand Palais for some of the most memorable couture shows each season. But this morning Kaiser Karl brought us back to reality and celebrated his team, particularly the "petite mains" working in the studio, by recreating Chanel's rue Cambon atelier replete with sketches, mannequins, sewing machines, cutting tables and fabric rolls. Most significantly, at the centre of the atelier show space, Chanel's seamstresses and couturiers hand-stitched garments as models emerged around them.
The intimate audience, including Jessica Chastain, Will Smith, new Chanel face Willow Smith, Celine Dion and Olivia Palermo, watched on from the edge of the studio as Edie Campbell opened the show in a boxy tweed suit with wide-legged, cropped trousers and low-heeled, black suede boots. The models' hair was transformed into an fountain of curls in a high ponytail, created by super stylist Sam McKnight. The bouclé trouser suits swiftly progressed into exquisitely beaded and pleated dresses and ornate, feather skirt suits in muted shades of dusky pink, black, white and grey before the show finished with a sequence of sumptuous evening gowns that were heavily embellished with bows and glittering gems paired with fingerless, long black gloves.
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The most eagerly-awaited look in every couture collection, is the show-stopping wedding dress which closes the show and today Edie Campbell was cast as the Chanel bride, bringing the spectacle to an end in a pink sequinned jacket with a frothy collar and ostrich-feather train and pink camellias adorning her hair.
When Karl came out to take his bow he was joined by two chief couturiers from the atelier (traditionally he is joined by celebrity models, be it Cara Delevingne or Brad Kroenig and his son Hudson), which came as a warming and surprising sign of gratitude and appreciation of his staff who mostly go unrecognised. As the fashion world spins faster on its axis and the industry challenges the exhausting schedule, this morning's celebration of Chanel's artisans and the painstaking, slow process of hand-crafting luxury clothing was a welcome relief in contrast to the dizzying pace of fast and disposable fashion.