Chanel’s latest collection was a siren’s song to ski bunnies and party girls everywhere.
Beginning in black and white on Paris’s cobbled streets, set to the atmospheric tune of Dianna Ross’s “Do You Know Where You’re Going To”, the house’s AW21 fashion film quickly cut to the smoky basement of Castel. There, in the legendary Saint-Germain-des-Prés nightclub, models jostled for space to do their own makeup and snaked down a winding staircase before piling their voluminous tweed coats in a corner to strut down a makeshift runway.
Very “big girls night out energy” but the clothes themselves were more low-key as, nodding to the nonchalance of Parisian style, creative director Virginie Viard served slouchy beanies and androgynous silhouettes. The latter doubled up as a reference to Stella Tennant, the late supermodel whose brand of punk-ish cool dominated the 90s fashion world and whose irreverence can be seen in the show’s eclectic styling, which sees slinky dresses paired with ski boots.
For those of you longing to escape the smog of the city, references to winter sports abounded in this collection as Viard drew influence from pre-pandemic alpine retreats and the lure of the après-ski bar. Once the slopes reopen, you can expect to see salopettes in white and fuchsia emblazoned with interlocking Cs — a spiritual descendant of last season’s Chanel logo tights — dominating the jet set’s pics from their latest trip to Val d’Isère.
Check out some of our favourite looks from the show below.