The runways at Chanel and Alexander McQueen were channeling dreamy nature vibes
If Baz Luhrmann is wowed, you’re doing something right. “I’ve always maintained that if Karl [Lagerfeld] gave up his day job, he’d be the world’s greatest opera director. He’s so great at the mise-en-scène and creating gigantic operatic moments,” Luhrmann said to WWD about Chanel’s Tuesday show at the Grand Palais, the site of a Niagara Falls-esque waterfall where models walked past to get to the runway.
At Alexander McQueen, creative director Sarah Burton also took inspiration from nature, specifically the gardens of Great Dixter in East Sussex. Suzy Menkes described the show for Vogue UK as “succeed[ing] in absorbing the essence of McQueen, but treating it with a gentler, female perspective.”
Models walked down the runway under trellised arches of country-garden flowers looking as if they had just come inside from a rainstorm, hair thoroughly drenched and clothes weather-beaten. Fashionista called it a “punk-themed garden party, complete with pink ruffled tea-length dresses, clunky biker boots and tartan kilts.”
Over at Chanel, guests including Cindy Crawford and Vanessa Paradis watched as models strutted the runway in plastic thigh-high rainboots and Chanel tweed. Singer-actress Cécile Cassel told WWD is reminder of the “The Lion King,” and Vogue’s Sarah Mower got a “‘60s/’80s youth vibe” with “space-age boots and astronaut-girl capelets.”
Amid the heaviness that has been 2017 so far, mother nature meets disco-era revival might be exactly what we need.