PARIS – At Paris Fashion Week, there was only one show in town. Karl Lagerfeld’s final collection, designed shortly before the designer’s death last month, was both a Chanel catwalk show and a moment at which the fashion world said goodbye to the designer.
A painted backdrop of bright blue sky inside the Grand Palais was transformed for this show into a Tyrolean village of 12 Alpine chalets. As always with Lagerfeld’s Chanel shows, a set had been realized with movie-location precision.
Each chalet had carved shutters, lace curtains, and wooden balconies. Smoke drifted from chimneys, and powdery snow banked in drifts against the long rows of wooden benches, settling on the birch and pine trees dotted between.
The picture-perfect scene set a mood that was celebratory rather than mournful. Claudia Schiffer wore a cream blouse embroidered with camellias, the house flower; Anna Wintour a pale pink bouclé suit. Lagerfeld, who never liked to admit to feeling unwell – it was one of the many things he considered common – detested funerals. “I just want to disappear like the animals in the virgin forest. It is awful to encumber people with your remains,” he told French television four years ago.
On each of the 2,658 seats for this show was a gift of Chanel No 19 fragrance, a bottle of classic Rouge Noir nail polish, and reproduction of Lagerfeld’s sketch of himself walking with Coco Chanel, inscribed “The Beat Goes On”. The house of Chanel intends to hold a memorial event for Lagerfeld, although neither details nor date is known. Meanwhile, the message is that though he is gone, Chanel lives on.
The last looks of the show were in all white. They were angelic pieces of tailored suits, feathered skirts, and diamond-studded cocktail dresses. The show received a tearful standing ovation with Cruz and a throng of Chanel darlings reappearing on the runway to bid an emotional farewell to Lagerfeld, whose contributions and daring boldness will not be forgotten and which will continue to be reflected in the industry for generations to come.
The show was, just as Lagerfeld himself is recorded o have said preceding the show, “like walking in a painting.” A painting that we are still not willing to walk out of just yet.
