The flat at 31 rue Cambon where Gabrielle Chanel lived serves as the inspiration for the Spring/Summer 2023 Haute Couture collection. It is the location that Virginie Viard took Xavier Veilhan when they first started working together and contains a variety of artefacts, sculptures, and drawings of lions, does, stags, birds, and camels. She adds she urged him to reinterpret the apartment’s bestiary and add his own for his third involvement. “The collection’s entire needlework universe is geared toward the animal kingdom.”
Kittens, corgis, bunnies, and swallows are embroidered on short tweed jackets and coat dresses alongside the does, stags, or camellias that are the House’s symbols. A joyful parade is getting ready and departs as though it were in a local square. Models are concealed by Xavier Veilhan’s eleven colossal creatures made of wood, cardboard, and paper, which are later opened to allow the models to flee. She says, “I appreciate it when the fantastic bursts forth and the path of events is disrupted.
The fabrics used to create the dresses and jumpsuits are silk tulle, taffeta, organza, georgette crepe, and chantilly lace. They feature superpositions, transparencies, flounces, pleats, fine straps, and repainted laces.
Photos; Copyright CHANEL
