If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): Chanel couture

Showing posts with label Chanel couture. Show all posts

Chanel's Mane Event. The Winter 2010-2011 Haute Couture Show.

The newest haute couture collection from CHANEL premiered July 6 at the Grand Palais in Paris. The collection was filled with rich brocades, luxurious sequins, ruched boots, new longer length dresses, some seriously puffy sleeves, tousled hair and lions. Yes, Lions.

One of Karl Lagerfeld's most sumptuous and elegant collections to date, the Chanel show and collection were punctuated with multiple appearances of the King of the Jungle.

The set in Paris, designed by Stéfan Lubrina, had an enormous statue (reported to weigh 8 tons) of a Lion through whose giant paws the models strutted Karl Lagerfeld's latest looks. You can view a video of the construction of the set here.

The set was based on this marble statue:

Lion heads adorned the invitation, the press kit, some of the jewelry, some of the gowns and even were embedded into some of the fabrics.

The invitation:

Karl Lagerfeld shooting the press kit:

A Chanel gown with sequined lions:

Chanel dresses with Lion head accents:

and on the jewelry:

Even the groom in the the finale donned a giant lion head:

A video of the fashion show:

To see the entire Chanel Winter 2010.2100 collection go to the Chanel site.

The Making Of Chanel's New Venetian Bib Necklace

I'm very fond of the 2009/2010 CHANEL Cruise collection (as opposed to their Spring 2010 haute couture collection) and the accompanying accessories.

The large decorative bejeweled neck pieces referred to as plastrons, are a stunning accessory to the line.

Here's how they created the beautiful plastron, a Venetian bib necklace with resin and cast stones that is part of their Cruise 2009/2010 collection of jewels, shown above and below:

above photo by Karl Lagerfeld

A resin shaft, made in advance, serves as a model for the parts of the necklace:

The glass rods are heated with a torch:

The glass is then poured into each piece of the necklace according to the studio sketch:

The imprint of the chamber is made in a silicone mold. All of the pieces are then gilded in "galva", an acid that enables the gilding of pewter and iron:

The backs of the pieces of the necklace are polished in order to obtain an 'aged' effect, with a sparkling resin. Then, all the pieces of the necklace are joined with solder:

The heart at the center of the chamber is drawn using a syringe filled with red enamel:

and voila!

all images courtesy of Chanel

The Easter Bunny Just Threw Up. The 2010 Spring Summer CHANEL Collection.

While I am usually singing the praises of CHANEL, I fear their latest 2010 Spring Sumer Couture collection is making me slightly nauseated.

Pearlized pastel confections walked down the runway donning Minnie Mouse-Meets- Bride of Frankenstein hairdos in the latest Haute Couture Collection from CHANEL.

Looking like sugared Easter eggs on parade, the latest gowns and suits from CHANEL are clad in pastel and silver metallics, accessorized with metallic gold and silver fingerless gloves, shimmery tights, iridescent gauze, pearl laden shoes and lots of futuristic versions of their classic suits.

As always, the clothes are beautifully crafted, the detailing impeccably produced, but I fear this particular collection is a bit too sweet for my taste. The pale pinks, peaches, greens, lavendar, baby blues and yellows look like butter mints and it makes me long for the austere black and white that Chanel is often known for.

As you can see above and below, the skirt has become the skort in many of the designs and the classic tweed jackets have taken on metallic buttons and ornate detailing that is similar to fondant.