Virginie Viard – Classy and fabulous way of living

Chanel Spring 2021 Couture

Georgia Papadon — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:39:03 +0000

Every time Chanel presents a new collection , I feel like being in a place of a special celebration..!

This season, Chanel’s creative director Virginie Viard , designed for a marriage party composed of her haute couture cabine, some 32 models in all.

These are not, as Viard says, the conventional fancy nuptials one might expect from a Parisian couture collection, but instead “more bohemian style—more a wedding or a family celebration in a village than at the Ritz!” complete with “the mother and the aunt, [and] the 15-year-old girl dressing up for the first time”—the latter in a tiny little grown-up black dress of spangled black tulle worn with 1980s opaque white tights.

See below the most interesting looks..!

There are also boys at this wedding, or rather girls who, in Viard’s words, are “a little garçonne” and dressed in old fashioned boys’ clothes—tweedy Oxford bags, and waistcoats for instance, a reminder of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s appropriations of menswear in her designs, and her literal borrowing from the wardrobes of her lovers including Boy Capel and the Duke of Westminster.

The mother of the bride, meanwhile, has some chic little suits in silvery embroidery and lace to choose from, or a skinny shrunken cardigan jacket embroidered by Vernoux, while more adventurous guests might opt for a lace jumpsuit or a tiny tweed coat dress with a ruffled overskirt to tie on like an apron.

There are “a lot of flounces and petticoats,” says Viard, as though the Gypsy Kings were playing at the celebration and the guests in those big tulle skirts were going to spin around the town square. “There is a masculine/feminine side to the silhouettes,” she adds, and the fairy-tale grandeur of these pale net ballgowns is brought into the real world when those skirts are paired with white boyfriend shirts, or singlets of crocheted chiffon, worked by the embroidery house of Montex.

To set the scene, the Grand Palais has been transformed this season to evoke the charm of a country wedding in the South of France (the sunshine bright enough for the guests to wear Jacqueline Onassis–scale sunglasses), with rustic arches wrapped in flowers, wooden chairs for the socially distanced guests, and coronets of silk as well as real flowers in the hair—the first time, as far as Viard knows, that Lemarié, fabled for their exquisite artificial flowers, have also worked with the real McCoy.

Via Britsh Vogue

Big Thanks !

By Georgia Papadon & team

Chanel Spring/Summer 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Georgia Papadon — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 12:55:07 +0000

A line-up of classy looks , inspired by the atmosphere of the “Nouvelle Vague” , had the opportunity to admire earlier this morning , at Grand Palais, in Paris.

See the most interesting looks here:

Chanel Spring/Summer 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Every season, Chanel closes out the Paris Fashion Week calendar — and fashion month on the whole — not just with a show, but with a show. Last season, the late Karl Lagerfeld took us to the Swiss Alps, where the Fall/Winter 2019 dream-like set was complete with almost a dozen snow-covered chalets. And for Spring/Summer 2019, we headed to the beach, where lifeguards looked on as the models sank their toes in the sand as they sauntered through the Grand Palais. But for Chanel Spring-Summer 2020 runway show, Creative Director Virginie Viard, who officially took the helm after Lagerfeld’s death in Feb. 2019, proved she’s not trying to fill her predecessor’s shoes — at least not in the showmanship sense.

Instead, Viard meticulously stripped back the histrionics that we’ve come to adore from any Lagerfeld production; she reset the stage by translating the history of the brand into a series of fun, wearable pieces that felt core to its legacy. As such, there were classic Chanel mainstays like cap-toe block kitten heels, ultra-feminine silhouettes, and a whole lot of tweed. (This time, it came in both jacket and sleeveless romper form.) The inspiration behind the collection? The city where it all began, of course: The set for the Oct. 1 show was smaller-than-usual production of the Parisian skyline at the Grand Palais.

Chanel Spring/Summer 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Chanel Spring/Summer 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Chanel Spring/Summer 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

Details…:

Chanel Spring/Summer 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

“The Spring/Summer 2020 show decor pays tribute to Paris, or more precisely a particular view chosen by Virginie Viard: that of the rooftops so typical of the capital with their zinc surfaces, walkways, chimney pots, and skylights,” the brand said in an Instagram caption just after the show. “The roofs of Paris remind me of the atmosphere of the Nouvelle Vague I saw silhouettes walking on the roofs,” Viard continued in the show notes.

Chanel Spring/Summer 2020 Ready-To-Wear Collection

chanel-spring-summer-2020-ready-to-wear-collection

From Paris Fashion Week,

Georgia Papadon & team

source of images: British Vogue

Big Thanks !

The loss of an icon

Georgia Papadon — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 23:49:29 +0000

With deep sadness the House of CHANEL announced the passing of Karl Lagerfeld on Tuesday 19 February 2019, the Creative Director for the CHANEL Fashion House since 1983.

A leading creative and a household name, Lagerfeld has been paramount to the success of three houses over his lifetime: Chanel, Fendi and his eponymous label. Today, the industry mourns the loss of one of the most influential talents in fashion history.

The legendary creative director for Chanel and Fendi, a fashion icon by all measures and one of the industry’s most prolific figures in the industry, has passed away in Paris at the age of 85.

A prolific creative mind with endless imagination, Karl Lagerfeld explored many artistic horizons, including photography and short films. The House of CHANEL benefited from his talent for all the branding campaigns related to Fashion since 1987.

The designer had been unwell for several weeks, and had missed a number of fashion shows. Born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt in 1933 in pre-war Germany, Lagerfeld changed his original surname from Lagerfeldt, because he believed it sounded “more commercial”. He emigrated to Paris as a young teenager, and became a design assistant for Pierre Balmain, before working at Fendi and Chloe in the 1960s.

He began his long career with Chanel in 1983, a decade after Coco Chanel died. An extraordinary creative individual, Karl Lagerfeld reinvented the brand’s codes created by Gabrielle Chanel: the CHANEL jacket and suit, the little black dress, the precious tweeds, the two-tone shoes, the quilted handbags, the pearls and costume jewelry. Regarding Gabrielle Chanel, he said, “My job is not to do what she did, but what she would have done. The good thing about Chanel is it is an idea you can adapt to many things.”

Lagerfeld was known for his distinctive look in his later years, regularly wearing dark suits, a pony-tail and tinted sunglasses.

Alain Wertheimer, CEO of CHANEL, said: “Thanks to his creative genius, generosity and exceptional intuition, Karl Lagerfeld was ahead of his time, which widely contributed to the House of CHANEL’s success throughout the world. Today, not only have I lost a friend, but we have all lost an extraordinary creative mind to whom I gave carte blanche in the early 1980s to reinvent the brand.

” Bruno Pavlovsky, President of Fashion at CHANEL, said: “Fashion show after fashion show, collection after collection, Karl Lagerfeld left his mark on the legend of Gabrielle Chanel and the history of the House of CHANEL.

He steadfastly promoted the talent and expertise of CHANEL’s ateliers and Métiers d’Art, allowing this exceptional know-how to shine throughout the world. The greatest tribute we can pay today is to continue to follow the path he traced by – to quote Karl – ‘continuing to embrace the present and invent the future’.

” Virginie Viard, Director of CHANEL’s Fashion Creation Studio and Karl Lagerfeld’s closest collaborator for more than 30 years, has been entrusted by Alain Wertheimer with the creative work for the collections, so that the legacy of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld can live on.

What’s next…

Following the passing of Karl Lagerfeld on February 19, Chanel has named Virginie Viard as the next creative director of Chanel. Studio director since 1987 and the designer’s right-hand-woman, Viard will now be in charge of the artistic direction for the collections of the French fashion house.

The man whose name has been synonymous with Chanel since 1983 died today. It is Karl Lagerfeld’s loyal partner of over 30 years, and studio director of Chanel, Virginie Viard who has been named as his successor. Viard will be in charge of the creative work for the collections, from ready-to-wear, to haute couture. Chosen by Alain Wertheimer, CEO of Chanel, Virginie Viard has worked in close collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld since 1987 and will continue the legacy that both he and the founder of the fashion house, Gabrielle Chanel, left behind.

It’s the end of an era. Karl Lagerfeld, the most iconic face, hair, and personality in fashion, has died. He was 85. The designer behind his own eponymous line, Fendi, and of course, Chanel, always cut an imposing figure, with taste so impeccable that the whole world had no choice but to follow suit.

Since his words were always as deliberate as his designs, we’ve rounded up some of Karl’s most memorable, and most glamorous, quotes on life.

“Everybody should go to bed dressed like they have a date at the door.”

“A sense of humour and a little lack of respect: that’s what you need to make a legend survive.”

“People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You can’t live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory.”

“Chic is a kind of mayonnaise, either it tastes, or it doesn’t.”

“I am very much down to Earth. Just not this earth.”

Goodbye Karl…

Thank you for what you taught us in this world…

Rest in Peace…