I actually prefer these backstage photos of the latest Chanel Pre-Fall collection than the runway ones. This is because when Chanel shows can be stripped of all that excess - the show design, the celebrity front row, the extravagance, the icebergs shipped in from norway and the watery floor... - they can be truly appreciated for beautiful design. Who would have thought that these were the same clothes sent traipsing down that golden runway, Byzantine smirks on the model's faces? Who would have thought these golden, luxurious, heavily embellished and yet beautifully realised clothes could appear so desirable backstage, with hair and make up milling around and the model leaning casually against walls, bored. I think this captures that Byzantine feel more than the collection, the idea of these beautiful, beautiful people in beautiful, beautiful clothes wearing them in a way that neither appreciates nor underestimates them. They are just clothes, and they are just wearing them. This has always been the allure of Chanel for me. One day, when I am older and fabulous, I'm going to wear Chanel like it doesn't matter to me. Like I don't wince at the cost, or worry about spilling something on it, because I have a hundred more where they came from, and they're all beautiful .
From these backstage photos you get a real sense of that golden, Chanel magic that Karl weaves. He's done it before, in Venice, Russia, and for Haute Couture. And he'll do it again. He constantly mines history for inspiration for resort and pre-fall, and yet still manages to present history in a way that isn't costume design. These are Byzantine clothes - you can see the classic embellishment, the tabards, weaving - and yet it never feels like anything other than Chanel. It can't be. That Chanel look is inescapable, tweed boucle and all. And here, backstage, before the models will strut onto the runway and before the bloggers will twitpic away and before the editors will note down which looks will start gracing covers come April and May, I have never seen anything more Chanel. Quiet, golden, inescapable luxury. You don't need the drama of the runway for that, you don't even need models - although of course, they do help. All you need is to slip into something, anything Chanel, and that spell will be cast around you. That's the magic of Chanel, That's why it is such a multi-million dollar company, that's why everyone wants a piece of Karl. Because he is the only designer today who has bottled glamour, stuck a price tag on it and sold it in a shop window.
And it's name is Chanel.
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