TALKING FASHION: Is Chanel Cruise 2020 What Women Want?
Fashion Week Review | Chanel Cruise 2020
For many, the idea of women heading the fashion houses that cater to women is a logical and common sense one. For who better to understand the needs of women than another woman?
After the passing of Karl Lagerfeld last winter, Chanel announced the "Kaiser’s" right hand, Virginie Viard, as the brand's new creative director. Outside of fashion’s inner circle, not much is known of Viard – a Frenchwoman by way of Dijon, who had been a part of Lagerfeld’s inner circle for the last thirty years. The appointment, nonetheless, was met with a positive reaction – especially in this charged #METOO era for its unmistakable nod to diversity and continuity of Lagerfeld’s brilliant legacy.
Photos: Alessandro Lucioni / Vogue.com
For her debut, Viard and Co. transformed the mythic Grand Palais into a picturesque railway terminal, complete with train tracks, ballast, signposts, passenger platforms, and benches to boot. There was no locomotive, however, which is perhaps summative of the collection she showed. Satisfactory, albeit low on steam.
To wit, a succession of tiered dresses, which were more Oscar de la Renta in their styling than Rue Cambon. Tapered trousers – topped by oversized blazers – recalled the routine play of Olivier Rousteing’s Balmain, and an A-line coatdress was more evocative of Miuccia than Coco – not to mention a few odd colour and styling combinations.
“Satisfactory, albeit low on steam”
And although the house’s signature (tweed) was present, alongside bags and jewellery, which were quite interesting, the glaring difference between this collection and those before was hard to ignore. This collection had a rote countedness – as if the clothes were decided via an abacus, or by ticking items off a grocery checklist: A dress here. A pair of shorts there…leggings…safari jacket, coats, skirts…
Viard’s debut, I thought, keeled in a similar fashion to the debuts of two other famous women designers of recent times: Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior, and before that, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. (Clare Waight Keller’s Givenchy debut thankfully did not suffer that fate). In that, while the collection was tidy (and varied, if I am to be honest), it lacked bite, balladry and individuality. Which begs the question: is routine, nondescript, quotidianness what women (truly) want?
The beauty of Lagerfeld’s collections was in their thoroughness, poetry and the interest he was also able to create around the clothes by way of his polymathic mind and (completed) set designs. The set was integral to the story. It gave us an idea who the girl – or woman – was for that season, what she liked, who she read, her current passions and her protests. It also gave us an insight into the mind of Lagerfeld himself. His "Chanel" was feminine and feline in her stride and wit, yet masculine in her resolve and independence. Karl proposed; here, Viard schelps.
“is routine, nondescript, quotidianness what women (truly) want?”
It is still early days yet. Perhaps Cruise 2020, à la Viard, was simply a palate cleanser; an appetizer meant to whet as many tastes as possible while the company gleans through sales (and social media feedback) what women want from Chanel, sans Lagerfeld, sans theatrics. Let's hope though that after the numbers are crunched, Viard will offer us more than tidy separates. For it would be a crying shame for this now beautiful Aurora to return to her sleepy past.
05/05/2019
Talking Fashion is monthly series that attempts to dissect the inner workings of fashion from an outlier - yet culturally astute - lens.