Chanel Spring 2016 Haute Couture Collection

January 26, 2016

Karl Lagerfeld presented his Spring 2016 Haute Couture Collection for Chanel in the Grand Palais this morning. Staged in a faux garden, the collection spanned practical daywear, exotic eveningwear, and even a look for men.

Karl Lagerfeld created his own perfect eco system this morning, transforming the Grand Palais into an energy efficient zone where a modernist wooden house was positioned in the middle of sprawling manicured lawn surrounded by trees and a lily pond. There were even swarms of midges circling which had show-goers speculating that Karl had even orchestrated that. Quite possibly. If you’re wondering what saving energy has to do with a lavish production of this scale, and haute couture – a world where your own G4 is the preferred mode of transport – all I can offer is that these are clothes intended for a lifetime; the absolute antithesis of fast fashion.

And then Cara Delevingne walked out with Leo, her excitable puppy – so excitable she had to scoop him up in her arms and walk him to her seat while he licked her face – and everyone soon forgot about why Karl had decided to go green. Moments after Leo was escorted off again,

backstage, the wooden slats opened and models meandered their way around Chanel’s garden.

It was a celebration of nature, which gave rise to a bucolic springtime wardrobe, comprising a lot of beige. “Gabrielle Chanel was the queen of beige,” declared Lagerfeld, whose palette ran from straw and sand to putty, taupe and hessian. The focus was on the Chanel suit, which featured neat fitted jackets with oval sleeves partnered with skirts of varying silhouettes, from strict and midi length pencils to full skirts and breezy, wide culottes.

2 – Opening the show was Baptiste Giabiconi, Karl Lagerfeld‘s male model muse. As he set out on the runway in front of a silent audience, the model remotely triggered the doll-house set to open, kicking off the haute couture show in style.
Photo : Baptiste Giabiconi Instagram

Having offered a small insight into the set with the show’s wooden invitations, Karl Lagerfeld transformed the Grand Palais into a Japanese garden with a wooden doll-house structure for his haute couture Spring/Summer 2016 show. For the finale, the structure was left completely often to showcase a trio of models in each window, with Karl Lagerfeld, Baptiste Giabiconi and Chanel couture bride Mica Arganaraz taking center stage.

The star accessory for Chanel haute couture Spring/Summer 2016? A slim belt with an iPhone or iPad pocket attached, giving every look a quirky, fun finish.

Chanel took graphic eyeliner to the next level at their haute couture show today, applying two long, black calligraphic swipes for a lynx-eye effect that gave Cleopatra’s iconic beauty an ultra-modern, 3D makeover. Hair stylist Sam McKnight took inspiration from Picasso, rolling the models’ hair into thick, crescent-shaped chignons with straight partings and a retro finish, while Edie Campbell and Chanel couture bride Mica Arganaraz completed the style with long, straight fringes. With a fresh, natural complexion and a rosy pink pout, the show beauty was the perfect match for Karl Lagerfeld‘s doll-house setting.

– In a Chanel show signature, Karl Lagerfeld offered a new reinterpretation of Coco Chanel‘s famous two-toned heels, presenting pointed silk satin and cork wedges at the haute couture show.

See every look :

Every look featured the same shoe silhouette in different colors: a round-toe cork wedge with a curved heel.

Pleated dresses were feather fine, while even wooly, natural coloured tweed skirts – where fragments of shaved wood was woven in – looked lightweight, with hemlines splaying into full fringes.

That nod to nature extended into nighttime hours too, a dress had sleeves embroidered with feathered bees, others boasted wooden birds, and of course petal appliques abounded. But the most magnificent arrived with capes that were painted and embellished in twinkling rhinestones.

How else to make a dramatic entrance but in a Chanel Haute Couture cape? A swath of evening looks came with translucent sparkling capes trailing behind them.

And so to the finishing touches: crystal dragonflies, bees, and other bugs posed as brooches, shoes took the shape of a satin two-tone ballet pump atop a cork wedge and waists were accessorized with a chicer version of a bum bag – Chanel called it a smartphone pouch, because even an eco-girl needs to stay connected. Oh, and a note on the timber set, the house promises to recycle it.