The Carrières de Lumières, in Les Baux-de-Provence was the magnetic location chosen for Chanel Cruise 2021/22 show. A highly graphic one as the simplicity, the precision and the poetry of Cocteau’s film made Virgine Viard want to create a very clean collection, “ with a very distinct two-tone, made up of bright white and deep black”. Viard’s lexicon is all about dualism and dichotomies which are subtly translated into the coherence of fabric selection like black macramé and white tweed as well as into quite a rock overall vibe: fringes, leather beads, sequins, pointed silver Mary-Janes, not to mention the customized lip piercing. As we watched the Chanel girls poetically freeing some white doves in the sky for the finale, you could recall in the looks line up “as much the modernity of the sixties as that of punk…”.
[…] Gabrielle Chanel was close to Cocteau, and I love the film Testament of Orpheus. In particular this magnificent scene: a man with a black horse’s head descends into the Carrières de Lumières, his silhouette cut out against the very white walls”.
Chanel’s powerful storytelling literally made you want to be there, touching those gigantic white stone walls while feeling the sunlight gently kissing your skin as it sneaks through the architectural structure of the The Carrières de Lumières. The brand definitely knew how to fill the crave that the impossibility of physical presence keeps magnifying. So, there you go: six silhouettes from the collection are at the heart of a magnetic film by Inez & Vinoodh starring Lola Nicon while she moves through Gabrielle Chanel’s legendary apartment at 31 rue Cambon, in Paris, surrounded by the designer’s bestiary and her symbols.
Cherry on top, though, is the show’s final music performance as electro-pop singer Sébastien Tellier is joined on the stage by some amazing guests such as Angele, Vanessa Paradis, Juliette Armanet, and Charlotte Casiraghi.
