Fashion
All aboard on the Chanel Cruise Line 2018
All aboard on the Chanel Cruise Line 2018
Docking a 148-metre-long ship with on-board piano bar, swimming pool and a passenger list of Hollywood stars in the centre of Paris is a bold statement of ambition, luxury and elegance. It is indicative of Karl Lagerfeld’s world view that the setting for his latest Chanel catwalk show was, in fact, plan B.
“We wanted to set sail, to take you on an actual cruise,” shrugged Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion, before the show on Thursday night. “We worked on a plan for two years, but to find the perfect boat proved impossible.”
The replica boat, named La Pausa after Chanel’s villa in the Cote d’Azur, took a month to install inside the Grand Palais, detailed down to the sound of creaking ropes and distant seagulls, and was the backdrop for clothes that revived the Chanel of a Breton stripe-wearing Coco on holiday. Cream ribbed sweaters had anchor-stamped gold buttons and wide white trousers were worn with deck-friendly flat shoes.
Evening dresses were bugle beaded, while the house tweed suit turned up with a skater-shaped skirt and cropped jacket. City black was swapped for sea blues and candy stripes. The mood was Coco at Deauville, with a dash of Duran Duran’s Rio. After a show featuring 80 outfits, all 900 guests were invited onto the upper and observation decks for champagne, Negroni cocktails, seafood and truffle chips.
