For Spring/Summer 2024, the muse for Chanel artistic director Virginie Viard’s ready-to-wear collection was a place – Villa Noailles, which she says inspired her ode to liberty and movement.
Regarded as a masterpiece of modernist architecture, the house was designed by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1923 for Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, a couple well known for their arts patronage. The 100-year-old villa’s creative spirit was a rich trove of inspiration for Viard’s floating volumes and graphic prints.
For starters, the teaser, shot by photography duo Inez & Vinoodh two days before the show was staged in the Grand Palais Éphémère, showed Dutch model Rianne Van Rompaey in the garden of Villa Noailles overlooking the town of Hyères, in the south of France.
Here, eight more things you need to know about the collection.
1. Virginie Viard’s collection is bookended with looks reminiscent of the colourful flowers that populate the mansion’s terraced gardens.
2. A breezy satin dress sporting sunray pleats outlined in black evokes the vibe of the sun-kissed villa near the sea. Styled with flounced satin opera gloves, a bag with a chain of pearls and velvet flipflops, it exudes casual glamour.
3. On pencil skirts in black duchess satin, cubist sequins embroidered on a geometric pocket reflect the renowned architectural gardens of Villa Noailles.
4. Nautical stripes’ play on proportions gets a graphic zing with the split A-line skirt in patchwork leather in striking red.
5. Viard’s nod to the house’s historic indoor pool appears in the form of a diamond-shaped halterneck bustier composed of an embroidered mosaic of silver sequins and blue mother-of-pearls.
6. The indoor pool channels the athletic spirit of water sports through tailored silhouettes cast in neoprene, rendered with printed watercolour flowers and hand-painted double-C motifs, and topped with embroidered silver sequins.
7. The artistic director reimagines Chanel’s iconic tweed skirt suit with wide fluid shorts. She softens the boyish look with pearls or a silk flower corsage, worn with ballet flats.
8. She also rethinks the Little Black Dress in this collection, conceiving a sensuous parade of embellished sheer silhouettes for the evening.
Says Virginie Viard, “Sophistication and informality, the tweed throughout the collection, sportswear and lace: I tried to bring one thing and its opposite together in the coolest way possible. And the gardens and swimming pool of the villa Noailles, that exceptional setting, lend themselves to that rather well.”
Discover more from the collection here.
(Images: Chanel)
