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Slimmed Down Chic at Chanel
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
Click on image to see bigger photo.
Paris, Oct 11, 2001/ FWD/ --- Karl Lagerfeld isn’t the only one to have lost weight this
fall in Paris. Just look at the Chanel suits the designer sent out on the catwalk of the
Carrousel du Louvre Thursday.
Though this collection took in a lot of themes, the big news was the new, slimmer version of
the classic Chanel jacket, which came snug as a stretch sweater and was cut high enough to
reveal plenty of belly buttons.
Karl paired the jacket with a broadly pleated and flared just-below-the-knee skirt that worked
brilliantly together.
One jacket in particular, worn by Stella Tennant, was made of strips of leather cut to look
like feathers, and the effect was magical.
With "Tonight It’s Party Time" blaring from the speakers, an opening pack of biker girls in
red and sky blue leather gear, several of whom clutched crash helmets bearing the famed double
C logo, hit the twisting catwalk.
Karl’s angels, however, are hardly wild and even wear strings of pearls when they mount
their hogs.
Chanel dominated the upper echelons of the expensive handbag market for decades, until the mid
nineties, when brands like Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton reduced the classic quilted bag to
the status of a has-been. Chanel has been desperately searching for a hot purse since then,
but all to no avail.
While Thursday’s collection certainly had some fine ideas - in particular a series of
envelope-shaped padded clutches - none of them looked like The Next Big Thing.
The costume jewelry, on the other hand, was excellent: armbands covered in amethysts or glitzy
Chanel logos, sunglasses with tiny pearls drooping from the lens, and padded boots with pearl
ankle straps.
Chanel, unlike practically every ready-to-wear show on the international calendar, actually
invites real customers to see its shows and not just critics and retailers. They make their
appreciation for the collection clear with sustained applause at the finale.
As some 55 models crowded onto the enormous catwalk, Lagerfeld took his bow attired in
white bow tie and shirt, black cashmere cardigan and his inevitable fan.
After such a fine show, it would appear that the current rumor sweeping Paris that Louis
Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs will soon take over is arrant nonsense. Jacobs has a long term
contract with Louis Vuitton and isn’t going anywhere, senior LVMH executives have told FWD.
Moreover, LVMH, Louis Vuitton’s owner, also owns two thirds of Jacobs’ own house so he is
tied to the luxury conglomerate.
Anyway, after such a clever show, why would Chanel’s owner, the Wertheimer family, want Karl
to leave?
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