A CHANEL fashion show in a barnyard? With cocks a-crowing and hens a-laying? Yesterday in Paris Karl Lagerfeld, with indefatigable élan, created a rural arcadia in the Grand Palais, presenting his spring-summer collection in a farmyard setting complete with haybarn and scattered straw and models disporting themselves in and out of a haystack clasping mobiles in quilted mini-clutches.
Lagerfeld made hay with the clothes too, which were anything but rustic despite the high-heeled clogs, jaunty ginghams, sheaves of wheat and other hillbilly references.
Thigh-high slits added sexiness to city skirts and sparkly tunics. Tweed jackets with sidestraps had sleeves and collars coated in feathery ruffles, and there was real elegance in the short hourglass-shaped dresses in classic black and cream, some with flirty lace insets.
With his usual nod to street trends, bracelets and lacey stocking tops were tattooed rather than real, and a male and female model dressed in identical skinny jeans and gold embroidered blazers highlighted the new obsession with androgyny.
British singer Lily Allen and her band closed this barnyard romp on a pop-up stage with her latest hit Not Fair.
Compared to Chanel’s buoyancy and cheerful optimism, Stefano Pilati’s YSL (Yves St Laurent) spring collection seemed uncertain in its focus and sent out confusing signals about how modern women want to dress. “Honest chic and understated elegance . . . based on work and discipline” were his notes for the show, but blowsy tops, puff sleeves, slashed lederhosen and ruffled strawberry print maxis seemed overworked and fussy beside a shapely white summer dress of appealing simplicity or a sleek black leather apron tied over an A-line skirt.
Chloe was more down to earth and utilitarian with its boyish, easy-going khakis, denim suits and flyaway blanket capes worn with no-nonsense monkish sandals. Evening wear was romantic, with long dresses frothy affairs of cloudy chiffon. With this her third collection for Chloe, designer Hannah MacGibbon is yet another woman at the helm of a French fashion house showing she’s in full control.