Chanel Lights Up Manchester With Tweed and Music For Métiers d'Art
The French fashion house led by the creativity of Virginie Viard arrives in Thomas street, in the northern part of the English city, to unveil the Chanel Métiers d'art collection. «Tweed is the central element of the collection, but without nostalgia and reinterpreted with pop effervescence… Manchester is a special city, it is the city of music and stimulates the exploration of creativity».
Thomas street, north Manchester. In the heart of the English city whose history is closely linked to the world of underground music, from the Sex Pistols to the Smiths, from Morrisey to The Chemical Brothers via Oasis or the New Orders, Chanel arrives in the capital of post-punk and Brit pop to unveil the new Chanel Métiers d'art collection designed by Virginie Viard. There, with a front row of celebrities (Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Casiraghi, Kirsten McMenany, Kirsten Stewart, Sofia Coppola, Hugh Grant, Rebecca Murder, Lucy Boyton, Laura Bailey, among others) she introduces a wardrobe in which tweed, among the pillars of the Chanel world, plays a leading role. "Tweed is the central element of this collection," explained Virginie Viard. "In creating this season dedicated to highlighting our Métiers d'art I thought a lot about Mademoiselle Gabrielle Chanel but I didn't want to recreate Coco's look when she dressed in items from the Duke of Westminster's wardrobe. I imagined Coco giving color to the tweed. I wanted to add a certain pop effervescence to this season."
The collection is typically Chanel cut by the world of underground musical cultures. "For me, Manchester is the city of music, it is a city in turmoil where you perceive the creative spirit, which helps you to invent, to imagine." Thus, in a clash of ideas, the world of the maison meets that of music with sporting accents inspired by football culture but also bucolic notes borrowed from the British moors to celebrate the marriage between the double C and England, a liaison that has lasted for over a century. This is also evoked through two aesthetic projects created alongside the show: a video collage directed by Sofia Coppola and a logo seal dedicated to Manchester created ad hoc by the artist Peter Saville.
But the stage is set for the collection which will arrive in stores all over the world in June 2024. Focus on the color palette, from salmon pink to lemon green, from apple to mustard yellow, from sky to intense red. All seasoned with an underground rock attitude and a '60s flavor, vaguely retro but without nostalgia to evoke a certain rebellious and non-conformist bon ton and brought to the stage by supermodels like Karen Elson and Edie Campbell.