Chanel's Ethereal Haute Couture

"Intemporel," the French word for timeless and a term that also suggests eternal, seems the right adjective to describe the latest haute couture collection by Chanel, a remarkable exercise in pure aesthetics and a major statement about modern fashion.
Presented Tuesday morning, Jan. 25, it was timeless in the sense that even though the collection was inspired by Marie Laurencin and echoed a famed painting this early 20th century "feminist" artist composed of Coco Chanel, the collection did not really suggested any specific era. Instead, it played on light throughout, rarefying it through crystals, pearls, beads and semi transparency to create clothes that shimmered and dazzled the audience in rue Cambon, in central Paris, where the collection was shown.
The show opened quietly - with a series of models in sequined leggings or jeans - tie-dyed, faded, in rose or pink and finished at the ankle with cluster of semi-precious stones - all worn with flat ballet slippers, tied with black silk ribbons, with the same strips used as chokers. Over the jeans, Chanel's creative director Karl Lagerfeld sent out sleek tunics and mid-length coats, seemingly dusted with delicate twigs and rococo squiggles. Each stood out brightly before the dark surrounding setting - a series of Coromandel screens, the Chinese lacquered paneling which Coco used to decorate her own Paris apartment, back when she posed for Laurencin.
Halfway through the show, the Chanel atelier swung into high gear with a remarkable series of outfits that were completely made of embroidery - gauzy fitted jackets woven with crystals, tulle pencil pants in micro pearls, or redingotes that dazzlingly reflected the light.
"Embroidering a design on to a sleeve or lapel is tricky, but making a whole jacket out of embroidery is incredibly difficult. I drove the atelier mad," said Lagerfeld.
For his finale, several score of models posed on a staircase with tall background mirrors, a reproduction of the same stairway at the top of which Mademoiselle Chanel used to quietly observe her own runway shows.
"Karl didn't so much sketch out this collection, as design it in light," quipped his muse and sounding board Amanda Harlech after this epoch making show.
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