When Virginie Viard approached French artist Xavier Veilhan to work with her on a set fit for the Chanel spring/summer 2022 haute couture show, she did so with the late Karl Lagerfeld in mind. With a barely-there brief, Veilhan—whose work spans photography, painting and film—was given full creative freedom. His starting point? Quintessential constructivism by way of Lagerfeld, peppered with fitting references from the early 20th century.
Needless to say, Veilhan’s elaborate decor set the mood for the collection. Think: larger-than-life discs fashioned out of plywood, a sand-filled runway and rounded looming lights, offset by a netural palette of browns, beiges and whites. Tying Veilhan’s vision together was Princess Charlotte of Monaco who opened the show atop a glorious brown horse named Kuskus.
Grand entrance aside, equally as eye-catching was Princess Charlotte’s black tweed and sequinned jacket which, naturally, caused no obstruction even while horse-riding. That was exactly the fun dichotomy Veilhan had wanted to create. Adds Viard in press notes: “These geometric shapes made me want contrasts, a great lightness and a lot of freshness: ethereal dresses that float as if suspended. Lots of flounces, fringes, macramé, bright lace, iridescent tweeds, colourful jewelled buttons.” And that was exactly what followed.
Materialising Viard’s vision of airiness was a summer assortment of Chanel classics and newcomers alike at the Chanel spring/summer 2022 haute couture show. Case in point: a tweed skirt with generous legroom—a recurring theme with most of the skirts and trousers from the collection—tweed jackets with delicately curved waists, textured frilled skirts as well as smooth satin dresses. And as with all of Viard’s presentations, the significance wasn’t lost on the details, from two-toned Mary Jane pumps and fine embroided finishes on jackets to an ornate Lesage creation which further tied in the collection’s overarching 1920’s references. In the Chanel universe, it seems, time travel is purely a matter of precision.
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