MANIFESTO

#61

ART NOW

Chanel

2021.12.15

TEXT BY Guia Ortolani

On the occasion of the Pre-Fall 2022 Collection, the Creative director Virginie Viard celebrated the human hand with the annual collection dedicated to Chanel’s specialty workshops.

Chanel Métiers d’Art collections are always an amazing celebration of the infinitely precise and skilled artisans hands that create all the embroideries, feather, pleats, shoes, hats and jewellery based in France, Italy, Spain and Scotland. Through a creative dialogue, the set of savoir-faire perpetuated and constantly reinvented by these breathtaking craftsman contributes to rendering each creation an exceptional piece. Interpreting the Chanel branding through graffiti-like embroidery in colored beads by Lesage, Virginie Viard highlights the Gen Z widespread logomania. Other hints to the young generation are the micro belts at the bare waist, which featured tiny bows and the giant black hair bows. Very Chanel chic were tweed jackets with sweatshirt sleeves, maxi-length skirts opened high up the thigh and those double-C cardigans and double-C pleated miniskirt. Viard’s references to the 80s are pretty clear in oversized trouser jeans and structured jackets, and more heavily on accessories, as chunky belts, layered long necklaces, and colorful crossbody bags all included.

“The 2022 Métiers d’Art collection is very metropolitan yet sophisticated, tweed jackets with sweatshirt sleeves, graffiti-style embroidery in colored beads by Lesage, voluminous purple or royal blue knit Bermuda short-outfits, and casual coats worn open.”

-Virginie Viard

Besides the retro references within the collection, the choice of cropped knits and baggy trousers is a clear indicator that Viard is on top of current trends, also featuring a modern matching camel knit-and-legging with a sophisticated cape and armfuls of bangles, baggy jeans with an elastic waistband, and voluminous knit Bermuda shorts-outfits. A selection of sheer black skirts, paired back to Mary-Jane pumps and loafers was a continuation of the Creative Director distinctive playful attitude. The intricacy and detail of the métiers d’art collection was joined by a design that felt casual and light, not just for a formal red carpet, but for a luxuriously-lived everyday life. This season Virginie Viard took over le19M, the newly opened building devoted to the workshops of the maison’s artisans, where she presented her most crafts-centric collection within the very same architecture that had informed its cuts and motifs. Super modern, the industrial chic of the grey concrete was the perfect backdrop to yet another sublime and extraordinary Chanel collection.

“Many of the embroideries are inspired by the structure of the building itself, such as those by Montex, which are very graphic and in silver sequins.”

-Virginie Viard

RIVE DROITE

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COLLECTION

Gucci Après-Ski

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The Maison presents the new Gucci Après-Ski collection, a selection of garments designed for a luxurious and refined high-altitude season told through a retro campaign inspired by the relaxed atmosphere of winter holidays.

JACQUEMUS

"LE RAPHIA"

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Under a relentless rain of raffia, that breaks in like a summer storm, Jacquemus presents its new Spring Summer 2023 collection, titled “Le Raphia”. The natural fiber becomes the undisputed star moving from its raw essence to being extremely luxurious.

CELINE

Age of Indieness

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Age of Indieness spotlights an aesthetic raised from the indie-sleaze era of the 1990s and early 2000s, Celine’s Winter 2023 collection, designed by Hedi Slimane, walk the catwalk at the Wiltern Theatre in the heart of Los Angeles.

Fashion

Chanel
Métiers d’Art

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The Chanel Métiers d’Art 2022/23 collection, presented under the artistic direction of Virginie Viard, parades at the Palais de Justice in Dakar, capital of Senegal. The show is unique in terms of creativity, and a tribute to the savoir-faire of the place.