CHANEL SS 2016 Haute Couture comes to London
Ethereal wooden embroidery defines this bucolic springtime collection: Culture Whisper gets exclusive access to CHANEL's Spring/Summer 2016 Haute Couture as it arrives in London hot off the Paris catwalk
It is a collection defined by its muted colours - sand and taupe - and exquisite embroidered fragments that celebrate springtime: shavings of warm wood, crystal dragonflies, bees and bugs brooches that glitter like precious jewels in a rock face.
Lightweight materials reinforce the feeling of a warm nordic spring. Pleated dresses swing lightly, and even the soft, wooly tweed skirts with their wooden embroidery are feathery to the touch and feature hemlines that splay open into fringes.
The warm glow of spring seeps into Lagerfeld's night-time hours too, where black evening dresses are embroidered with bees, and nude gowns carry the light green springs of a flowering plants.
A dress inspired by the Aubazine orphanage, where Coco Chanel grew up.
These muted earthy colours tie Lagerfeld's latest collection to Chanel's prolific history. "Gabrielle Chanel was the Queen of beige" Lagerfeld states.
The focus point for the collection has been the Chanel suit, bestowed with oval sleeves worn with long pencil skirts of varying silhouettes, and fitted jackets coupled with full skirts or flared culottes.
This collection has been heralded as the antithesis of fast fashion: a collection, like northern engineering, that is designed to last.
