Every Look in Chanel's Spring/Summer 2023 Haute Couture Collection
Virginie Viard's latest collection for Chanel takes inspiration from the animal iconography in Coco Chanel's apartment at 31 rue Cambon.
On theme with Chanel’s history of larger-than-life runways, the Spring/Summer 2023 Haute Couture collection saw models walking through huge wooden sculptures. The inspiration? Madame Chanel’s personal mythical animal sculptures that decorated her Paris apartment.
When designing the runway show's set, Creative Director Virginie Viard called upon Xavier Veilhan once again to help bring her vision to life. “For [Veilhan's] third participation, I asked him to reinterpret the apartment's bestiary and incorporate his own,” she says. “The whole embroidery universe of the collection is turned towards the animal world.”
Throughout the collection, tweed skirt sets and dresses are outfitted with kittens, dogs, rabbits, birds, deer, and other creatures that represent Coco Chanel's sartorial whimsy. The runway, marked by supersized animal figurines made of wood, paper, and cardboard, encompasses the details of the collection into a singular vision that converses with themes of youth and innocence. “I like it when the marvellous bursts forth and the course of events is interrupted,” continues Viard.
Seated front row at the show were Chanel regulars Vanessa Paradis, Marion Cotillard, and Charlotte Casiraghi, as well as newer faces like Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink and Apple Martin, daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin.
