Despite the stifling effects the global pandemic had on the business of fashion, Chanel Creative Director Virginie Viard – along with her counterparts Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior and Jeremy Scott at Moschino – boldly kept up the creativity and conceptualizing throughout. Indeed, from having Juergen Teller shoot Kristen Stewart for Metiers D’Art, enlisting Sofia Coppola to capture Margaret Qualley for Fall 21/22, or hitting a Provençal beach to show off the rockstar cool of the Cruise 21/22 collection, Chanel has simply never stopped being, well…Chanel.
But for Fall/Winter 2022/23 Viard has gone and taken it back to the essence. And so what was seen recently being marched down the runway at Paris’ Grand Palais Éphémère was acres of tweed, in gorgeous colors, rich textures, and striking patterns – the film of which has been fittingly titled Infinite Tweed. Founder of the house Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel once traversed the Scottish countryside and strolled along the River Tweed, gathering ferns and bouquets of flowers whose colors and textures would serve as inspirations for her creations.
“Devoting the entire collection to tweed is a tribute,” Viard explains, citing the examples of, “a long pink coat mottled with blue and purple, or a burgundy suit with a delicate gold shimmer.
Coco also found inspiration in the tweed jackets of her lover the Duke of Westminster, apparently regularly borrowing them for herself, blurring the gender lines of fashion, as she was wont to do. “I’m fascinated by this ever-contemporary gesture,” Viard reveals. “There’s nothing sexier than wearing the clothes of the person you love.” (Except maybe turning down a marriage proposal from the richest man in Britain.)
Highlights of the collection include oversized jackets, tweed pencil skirts, black panne velvet trousers, strapless tweed dresses, lots of textured tweed tights, and thigh-high boots in beige and black rubber – the latter which might also come in handy should one be navigating the marshy Scottish countryside. But it was Viard’s full on commitment to the fabric that veritably built the House of Chanel that was so surprising yet somehow so essential, making it a high point of the season.
“I love working with it so much,” the designer enthuses. “I couldn’t live without it at Chanel.”
