Chanel Cruise Collection 2019-20
This season, CHANEL invites guests on an imaginary journey. The Nave of the Grand Palais has been transformed into a Parisian train station in the Beaux-Arts style, complete with platforms and an elegant café-restaurant Le Riviera. Virginie Viard, the creative mind behind this beautiful adventure, writes a travel story untouched by time, as the whistle blows to signal one’s departure to a joyful, sunny climate. CHANEL style and allure embrace the theme of a silhouette in motion, strong yet subtly delicate.
Virginie Viard writes a travel story untouched by time
Alongside iconic black, ecru and white, a brilliant palette of pink, green, blue, fuchsia, mauve and sky contrasts with deep bistre, mocha browns, cobalt blues and navy. Pastel hues blend with one another, as foliage printed on a blue or fuchsia background is seemingly caught in mid-air, like a landscape blurred by the speed of a train. Pink and blue sequins fall into line, accumulating like the holes punched into tickets. Embroidered flowers—sequined or cut from silk, tulle and rhodoid—compose a garden, at the heart of which the camellia majestically blossoms.
Chanel
[portfolio_slideshow id=80222 align=center width=699 click=advance thumbnailsize=40 showcaps=false]
The characteristic style of CHANEL guides each design in the new Cruise collection: comfort and functionality, simplicity and elegance … to come and go in, travel and live in and be oneself in without hindrance. Jackets and wide trousers with double buttons in gabardine or waxed cotton draw inspiration from workmen’s uniforms. Hooded trench coats or amply cut coats gathered at the waist are given the occasional feminine touch of a chain belt and cotton blouse with a large flounced jabot. A modernity accentuated by pointed pumps, two-tone booties with small cone-shaped heels and ballerina flats in tweed.
The iconic CHANEL tweed jacket, which liberates movement as much as the allure, imposes a timeless style: with two, four or six pockets, with or without a collar, short or long, single or double breasted with draped panels, trimmed in braid, belted with a chain interlaced with leather to accentuate the waist or offer a straighter line, with shoulders that are soft and rounded or, on the contrary, sharp and squared. Exuding CHANEL savoir-faire down to the smallest detail, the jacket hides a silk interior that extends the pattern of woven tweed in perfect continuity. The edge-to-edge flush lining is veiled in chiffon at the collar and cuffs, or appliqued with buttons that grow as the pockets broaden; an embroidered handkerchief sporadically escapes. The emblematic chain appears at the bottom of the jacket lining—the ultimate touch of CHANEL refinement.
Beneath the jackets lie chiffon vests embroidered with flowers, poplin bandeau tops fastened with a bow over the chest, or bustiers covered in shimmering sequins and sparkling flowers. Alternating with jersey leggings, the mini-skirts, trapeze skirts and elongated knickerbockers are fashioned in tweed for a new version of the iconic CHANEL suit. Coupled with trousers in leather or hessian, tweed also appears on tops embellished with sequins or enhanced with a wide ruffled organdie collar.
The dresses are designed with the sophisticated simplicity of a brushstroke. Pure lines liberate the body, evoking imperceptible volume and exquisite femininity highlighted by bias cuts, asymmetrical shoulders, wraparound panels, ethereal flounces and plunging necklaces. Braids and bows in satin, white camellias worn as brooches, ladder lace arranged like train tracks, ornate finishes reminiscent of bygone lines and removable Bertha organdie collars all reinforce the charm.
Joyful frivolity takes form with ruffled skirts in check-printed chiffon and strappy dresses in fuchsia or blue chiffon with plant motifs. Gathered and ironed by hand, diaphanous panels seem ready to float in the breeze when descending from the train. An innocent grace radiates from the asymmetrical dresses in linen and organdie, while the same softness diffuses over the long dresses in black broderie anglaise.
For evening, black and white aprons become sheath dresses with removable shirt collars, hemmed with the CHANEL chain or embroidered with flowers. Worn open over a bandeau with a big bow, the crispness of a man’s shirt with a pleated plastron is softened by transparent organdie fabric. Styled with wide-cut hessian trousers, a masculine shirt in poplin is transformed into a backless top, ruffled with a smocked high waist. The expected bow tie is replaced with a knotted satin ribbon adorned with a camellia. A black linen sheath dress is embroidered with sequins that capture the colors of the night and moon’s reflection in the train windows, while another is swathed in bouquets of pink sequined flowers.
Continuing this romantic journey, Virginie Viard imagines a long dress in white lace embellished with golden thread, and another design in midnight blue lace with a low neckline revealing a large black satin bow. The Artistic Director tenderly deconstructs the mechanisms of train station clocks … the dials are multiplied to infinity in the navy-blue guipure lace of a long dress, while the deconstructed hands and indices are embroidered onto the neckline of a dress in white lace.
Virginie Viard tenderly deconstructed the mechanisms of train station clocks
Inseparable from the elegance of CHANEL, jewelry is added to silhouettes for both day and night: metal hoop and pendant earrings are set with strass, bracelets are adorned with colored cabochons and cuff bracelets are beaded, set with chains and leather or featured in resin and stones. Metal travel flasks are mischievously slipped into quilted leather cases with a chain strap. The 11.12 bags adopt a patent quilted leather with floral-embroidered tweed, or are equipped with a handle. The CHANEL 19 bag comes in quilted jersey, and the CHANEL 31 bag returns in faded denim. The travel bags—overnight bags in denim or leather, a maxi duffle bag with pockets, a “3-part” backpack, hip packs in tri-color leather and multifunctional clutches—all ensure transportation with ease. An extremely refined cushion clutch in white cotton is embroidered with clocks, while the railroader’s lamp becomes a minaudière in rhinestoned resin.
With this collection, Virginie Viard continues the story of CHANEL and travel by delivering her own fresh, delicate vision. Following the tradition of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld, she shapes a look of sophistication built on the purity and exactitude of every detail.
CHANEL ambassadors Anna Mouglalis, Caroline de Maigret, Laura Bailey, Charlotte Cardin, Vanessa Paradis, Lily-Rose Depp, Gaspard Ulliel, Keira Knightely, Nana Komatsu, Liu Wen and William Chan, as well as actress Ali MacGraw and model Claudia Schiffer, attended the CHANEL 2019/20 Cruise runway show on May 3, 2019.
##
Learn More
With love,
FWO
