Some of my favourite looks from the show. The press release is at the end of this blog post. I don’t normally publish press releases – I pretty much have an argument each time someone emails me one but CHANEL is different. I love working with Chanel India and their team and I actually look forward to their press releases. I love everything. The set production, the makeup, the accessories, the clothes. I’m only sharing the ones I think I would love to wear. There were far more looks of course. And the press release makes it sound like a grand evening, a fantastic experience to boot. I wasn’t there to collect the experience and file it away on the blog with photographs I’d shot but hey, a girl can dream! So lovely. Swoon is happening.
The photographs were shared by CHANEL India PR, as was the press release copy below.
To present “Paris in Rome 2015/16”, the new CHANEL Métiers d’art collection inspired by French actresses and Italian cinema, Karl Lagerfeld chose a legendary place where all imaginary worlds and creative desires come together: the Cinecittà Studios in Rome.
As a prelude to the collection, guests were invited to a cocktail party on the film sets of Roma Antica before discovering Once and Forever, Karl Lagerfeld’s latest film starring Kristen Stewart and Geraldine Chaplin, projected onto a giant screen in the Piscina, one of the most important film studios at Cinecittà. After that it was in the Teatro N°5 – Federico Fellini’s favourite studio – where Karl Lagerfeld put together a Paris of yesteryear, an idea of Paris and its livelier quarters. In this black and white décor reminiscent of those by Alexandre Trauner, the famous production designer favoured by Marcel Carné, and to the piano sounds of artist Christophe Chassol, the models with their smoky gazes came out, one by one, from the Rome station of Paris’ metro line 5, wearing two-tone mules or pearled sandals.
The collection silhouettes combine tones of a late Roman autumn with the fetish colours of CHANEL: beige, cream, grey, black and navy blue are added to a palette of brown, ochre, oranges and cappuccino. Tweed, mohair and curly wool, cashmere, leather, jersey, velvet, lace, silk crepe, chiffon and georgette all compose an extensive wardrobe with typically Parisian elegance and a lingering dash of Italian glamour. The iconic suit is trimmed with a “galon pellicule”*. It comes as a trompe-l’œil dress or as a threepiece version with jacket, straight skirt and cigarette trousers. Dresses in tweed, cut on the knee, and midi skirts are warmed with small capes. The pleated silk and feathers that adorn dresses, skirts, blouses and coat linings are painted with motifs recalling Roman marble, while “farfalle” embroideries also make an appearance in this Franco-Italian wardrobe. For evening, the silhouette is ultra-feminine and extraordinarily elegant. Lace negligees embroidered with tulle, sheath dresses in pleated velvet and “camicie da notte”** in crêpe georgette and guipure lace, the dresses are extremely delicate.
At the end of the show, the boutiques, restaurants and cafés all came alive as the party began. The guests, the extras and the models became the protagonists of a black and white film with a soundscape of voices belonging to lyric singers and buskers. Performances by DJ Paolo di Nola and the Pachanga Boys concluded the evening’s festivities. CHANEL ambassadresses Kristen Stewart, Anna Mouglalis and Zhou Xun, actresses Rooney Mara, Geraldine Chaplin, Clotilde Hesme, Ludivine Sagnier, Kasia Smutniak, Alessandra Mastronardi, Valeria Bilello, Matilde Gioli and HRH The Princess of Hanover attended the event.
*film braid **nightgowns
#chanelmetiersdart #parisinrome
