For CHANEL’s Fall/Winter 2023/2024 ready-to-wear Collection, Virginie Viard played on the power of Coco Chanel’s favourite flower. “The camellia is more than a theme, it’s an eternal code of the House,” she explained, “I find it reassuring and familiar, I like its softness and its strength”. At the show, a giant version of the winter bloom held court center stage, whilst smaller versions were found blooming on pockets, jackets and buttons, and on romantic prints, catching the eye with playful touches. Camellias made using technical savoir-faire by CHANEL’s Metiers d’Art embroidery atelier Montex were attached to collars and lapels and intricately woven onto boleros and gilets.
While one could easily imagine many of the looks on today’s layer-loving Parisienne —jackets over waistcoats and vice versa, dark floral evening dresses atop bold red turtlenecks and tights that looked not dissimilar to long johns—a feel of swinging London was also at play. Viard sought to add charm and realness to her looks with “touches of 1960s and 1970s, a certain English vibe,” citing “comfortable, enveloping coats and authentic materials”. Large feathered pom poms on knitwear felt like the sort of Brit-wit pieces London It girls would be donning come fall.
Though delicate details can be found throughout, this collection was, according to Viard, conceived to be viewed in motion. As guests entered the show, giant curved screens showed a black and white film of actress Nana Komatsu on a merry-go-round of wooden horses by Inez & Vinoodh. The flounces, revealing backs, slits in Bermuda shorts, beads, and sequins and the fantasy threads in the knitwear lent to this momentum as the models glided through the show space’s darkly lit arena. Fashion that will no doubt move freely with the CHANEL woman as she navigates the whirligig of modern life.
View the gallery for our favourite looks from CHANEL’s Fall/Winter 2023/2024 runway show, and celebrities in attendance.
CHANEL’s Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Collection is an Ode to the Maison’s Timeless Camellia
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