Madness in Our House of Chanel

October 05, 2008

Madness in Our House of Chanel

Well, the Chanel show was just as grand as you'd expect from Karl Lagerfeld. He opened with the song Our House from Madness, an odd choice, and one that didn't really work as far as the senses are concerned (see video, do you agree?), but was obviously handpicked to fit his concept. Lagerfeld wanted to recreate the days of old where shows were viewed in-house at the original Chanel boutique at 31 Rue Cambon, so he brought it to the Grande Palais in the form of a life-size facade of the building and a street runway.

There was a bit of goofiness in the show - a model wearing a swimsuit sported a pair of wraparound sunglasses with plastic sideburns attached. The model walking alongside her couldn't seem to hide her smirk, you know she was glad it wasn't her.

Closing the show were five male models who strutted down the 'street', dressed in slight variations of young Karls. Come on guys, you know you want to rock this. Do it, please (is that Wilmer Valderrama on the right?):

Here are my picks from the women's looks (I'm guessing the guys' thing was a novelty Karl did to amuse himself). A new hosiery look debuted here - half sheer and half semi-opaque black tights that gave the classic tweeds a young, fresh update, and looked plain weird with other outfits. The collection has been said to be a bit all over the place, while other fashion reviewers raved about the range of inspirations. I liked it. I didn't love it. But that's okay, there will be another show coming along in no time, and 75 year-old Karl Lagerfeld has no plans whatsoever to retire. Thank god.