Established 1961 21 Lifestyle Fashion Thursday, March 5, 2020

hanel designer Virginie Viard house founded by the horse- and polo- CTuesday signaled she may put an mad Gabrielle , with slashed jodh- end to the brand’s themed Paris purs, folded down calf-length musketeer fashion week spectaculars, a year after the boots and billowing side-buttoned leather death of her legendary predecessor Karl trousers that resembled riding chaps and Lagerfeld. The German showman spent black suede jockey hats. Skirts were also millions turning the vast Grand Palais into slashed, sometimes up to the hip with his playground, building a Chanel space Viard saying she was after movement, rocket, a near life-sized ocean liner, the “freedom, energy and absolute desire”. Her Eiffel Tower, a tropical beach and the big innovation was putting snap buttons on Verdun gorges-complete with waterfalls- Chanel jackets for the first time, to free up as a backdrop for his extravagant shows. the wearer and allow “a more lively ges- ture”, she said.

‘Feminine Amazons’ Models present creations for Chanel during the Women’s Viard said the equestrian theme was Fall-Winter 2020-2021 Ready-to-Wear collection fashion also partly inspired by a photo of show in Paris. — AFP photos Lagerfeld in a striped suit and riding boots. But she also drew ideas from Claude Chabrol’s French film classic, the 1968 chiller “Les Biches”, about a love triangle. Indeed the show began with a nod to the movie, with two typically chic Parisian friends walking arm in arm, “as feminine as they were Amazons”, Viard insisted. A video released to tease the show fea- tured the rising US actress Margaret Qualley-daughter of Andie MacDowell and That said, one Asian influencer was tak- one of the stars of “Once Upon a Time... in ing no chances, wearing both a branded Hollywood”-in a hommage to the Chabrol Chanel face mask as well as full face visor. film, meeting her secret lover on the Pont Light relief was provided by striking des Arts bridge over the River Seine. French lawyers who, dressed for court, Qualley was also in the front row for the staged their own alternative runway show show with a galaxy of other celebrities outside the Grand Palais carrying placards including “Avengers” star Pom Klementieff, declaring, “The only black gown you will the British actress Emily Beecham and ever need”-a cheeky reference to Chanel’s American singer Janelle Monae. iconic . Having opened with the Paris bour- Both Hadid sisters, Bella and Gigi, by far geoisie, Viard closed at the other end of the busiest supermodels in Paris this week, the social scale, with a trio of more pop also turned up later on the Miu Miu run- But the more understated Viard, his for- looks based around crop tops and hot- way. Bella told AFP that the secret to her mer right hand woman, strongly suggested pants under long overcoats worn by the stamina was nothing stronger than “my on Tuesday that that era may be over. supermodel triumvirate of Gigi Hadid, morning ginger tea”. Miu Miu, an offshoot “There is no frame for the show,” she said. Mona Tougaard and Hyun Ji Shin in spot- of the Italian brand Prada, went heavily “I don’t like that which is framed.” Instead ted tights. While the New York Times critic retro with a paean to plaid and the glam- she had her army of models walk through Vanessa Friedman sounded a note of skep- our of fur and leopard skin, although the an icy abstract landscape of stepped curv- ticism, tweeting that the three looked like latter were both fake, the label having just ing waves of black and white, swept by the they were off to get some chips after a gone fur free. — AFP odd puff of dry ice. The French creator, night on the town, Viard insisted the col- who took over from Lagerfeld shortly after lection was about “a very simple, very pure his death aged 85, sent out a mostly black momentum. “Romanticism but without any and white collection, thin on the traditional flourishes, emotions but without any frills,” tweeds that Lagerfeld relied on. she added. While fears of the coronavirus They were also very few dresses, with prompted one fashionista to wear a cus- jewelry riffing off a square cross reminis- tomised camelia face mask-the flower was cent of Madonna’s glory days, making the Chanel’s favorite-masks have been a big glamour statements. Instead Viard rarer sight in Paris than during the Milan returned to the roots of the Paris fashion fashion week that preceded it.