Chanel Fall/Winter 2012 Show Grand Palais, Paris. July 4.
These were some of my favorite tactile details from the recent product line for Chanel. The color theme seemed to be grey and pink, which seemed a little unusual for a fall season, but there was a retro sensibility, and classic and timeless functionality, which is Chanel’s appeal. Drawing on some historic looks from Coco’s line, the short cocktail jackets maintained their boxiness and precision shapes, and the winter coats featured shorter length A-lines with some textile bulkiness. I’m afraid some of these might be too bulky for moderate to heavy-set women. However silky bows, lacey fringe and even feathers, softened the jackets lines. And there was a surprising amount of sheen, from sateen and reflective lame’ metallics to offer contrast to the rougher textures.
There seemed to me to be a slight feeling of austerity and restraint in the designs rather than a sense of lavishness, which again reinforced my sense of what was esentially Coco. Yet there was a cleanness in the simplicity, and elegance to the silhouettes. I am not a fan of short-length princess sleeves. However the new approach to fingerless elbow-length gloves covered the lower arm with style. And the spare, angular necklines of the tuxedo dresses and star-like oriental collars, brought emphasis to the pure beauty in some of the models’ faces– which is sometimes forgotten that the model is a human being, and not a clothes horse! Several of the designs featured layered, ruffled laciness, reminiscent of boudoir shifts or undergarments, which feminized the female form, revealing what Chanel sometimes seems to hide with more chaste structure.
I was sensing elements of Russian or Ukrainian orientality, yet with much more extreme restraint than that which was featured last year at Bombay, India.
Star in the Stone 