Chanel's Oscar-Worthy Craftmanship
By Godfrey Deeny
(Photo by Gruber-FWD)
PARIS, Jan 22, 2003/ FWD/ --- No Anna, no Andre, no Ingrid, and not even Patrick.
The nomenclature of American fashion has skipped the Paris haute couture this season,
as a result missing a wonderful Chanel collection that was as much the latest coronation
of Karl Lagerfeld's fertile imagination as a celebration of French craftsmanship
par excellence.
Lagerfeld seemed obsessed with flowers this season, staging the collection in the clear
plastic enclosed terrace of the grand Ledoyen restaurant, where the models walked along
a fake garden path in front of the Carre des Champs Elysees' manicured green lawns.
"Gardens? I'd love to spend more time in mine in Biarritz, but doing this collection kept me
in Paris. But at least I have my little patch here," said Lagerfeld, referring to the
garden of his elegant Left Bank hotel particulier.
Lagerfeld opened with a series of snazzy slim-line coats hugging the body in classic wool
boucle that will find ready clients in the stylish, and strikingly, young grand dames
who wiggled passed the metal detectors at the high-security show Tuesday.
The mood was ladylike and modern with multi-colored pearl necklaces, bizarre hand rings
and black leather strips and camellias swathing the models.
Hair was exquisitely prepared by Odile Gilbert, bundled up and interspersed with mini veils,
miniature pill-box hats or tiny faux roses.
Bustle skirts of white cloth petals topped with diamante blouses, an amazing sequined coat
in an abstract expressionist blotchy print, and a series of rose-colored tweed coats whose
weave morphed into transparent tulle at the hem and cuffs were just some of the many standouts.
"It was not meant to be a homage to artisans, more a way of saying how much we need them,"
said Lagerfeld, as behind the swarm of camera crews a model eased her way out of a
semi-transparent sheath composed of tiny plastic pockets of semi-precious stones.
It's less two months to the Oscars, and judging from what we have seen so far in Paris,
nothing will quite match this collection on that all-important red carpet in March.
L.A. stylists, you have been warned.
|
