Hanging out and lounging on couches in Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s old flat. This is the introduction to the new film of the Chanel Cruise Show 2021/22. The models wear important key pieces of the collection, such as a wrap jumpsuit, a tweed skirt with a print T-shirt, and a flowing imposing dress. They convey the feeling that all of us know by now – spending too much time indoors. However, they only initiate the journey. Leaving through the balcony door, a fade of light takes place, carrying the viewer to the quarries of light. Through its huge limestone walls, they seem both hopeful and equally inaccessible. Virginie Viard’s cruise collection has a characteristic vintage glamour, but with a very modern touch. There is a play of silhouettes in the quarries, ranging from white dresses with stand-out embroidery, to crocheted capes and imposing black and white suits. Viard uses the traditional aesthetics of the house and combines them with a youthful attitude. A mix of mod and punk references leads to combinations of draped tweed tops with fishnet tights to fringed cuffs on skirts, trousers, and dresses. With the collection, comes a certain sensibility. Alongside the black and white suits, coat dresses and mini skirts are soft white lace dresses dotted with embroidery, high-waisted trousers in bright tones, and floral embroidered pieces that only underpin this sensitive, fragile feel. Playing with boundaries between Chanel classics, traditional pieces, and the daring rebellious punk interpretation makes for a magnificent show by Virginie Viard. This shows that the mixing of classic and traditional can never be completely dissolved, as either the new is created from the old or the old is interpreted in a new way, each of them informing the other. The audience is taken to an imaginatively distant place in the French Provence with a rousing finale of white doves soaring into the sky. There is hope in the air that the next Chanel show will again take place with a live audience.
