Paris Fashion Week: Chanel Spring Summer 2015

Models in slouchy tweed and washed out watercolour prints stage a surprise feminist march, chanting into branded Chanel megaphones and holding placards high. Think model street protestors, huge placards that read “History is her story” and “Make Fashion not war!” tailored tweed two-piece suits and Cara Delevingne rallying the demonstration with a megaphone shouting, “What do we want?!” Impressive right? It seemed like quite the model army.

Nothing is ever as it seems at the Chanel show. Viewers are so accustomed to surprise and spectacle that yesterday morning when the collection simply went down the runway, everything felt off-kilter. Held in a dingy dilapidated street of #ChanelBoulevard, a set resembling tenement housing built from scratch on location at the Grand Palais in Paris. Clutching branded speakerphones and holding aloft tongue-in-cheek placards slogans with “Feminist but feminine”, and “Ladies first”, Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel-clad children of the revolution – including Charlotte Free, Gisele Bundchen, Joan Smalls, Georgia May Jagger and Cara Delevingne marched down Boulevard Chanel.

Models wore slouchy suits rendered in colourful tweed, and saturated washed out watercolour prints appeared on everything from boots to blouses. Small evening bags were typographic, declaring “5 + 5 = (interlocking CCs)” and resonated the girl power theme, with “Ladies first” appearing on one. Fabric satchel bags adorned with flower power appliques were a festival girl’s fantasy. It was bold, bright and daring because next season is about making a stand for something (or STYLE) and everything you believe strongly in.

We loved the mosaic cocktail dresses and button down boucle jackets, the models walking two-by-two, real puddles on the street. Chanel just set the fashion schedule for spring!