Like any self-respecting party-goer, a Chanel woman doesn't wear tights on a night out either, nor a coat. That was one of the many takeaways from the Chanel Métiers d'art show in Manchester last night.
Chanel took over the English city for two days (last year the French house travelled to Senegal), celebrating the multi-layered culture of the post-industrial city. It might have seemed like an unexpected choice, but after a 48-hour takeover, creative director Virginie Viard made it all make sense. She connected the dots between her own roots, the French maison and Gabrielle Chanel’s past, who developed a proclivity for English tweed when spending time at the Duke of Westminster’s country estate, Eaton Hall, just outside Manchester.
The trip’s itinerary was an immersion into Mancunian culture, featuring a visit to the stands of Old Trafford to watch a Manchester United v Chelsea football match (2:1), complete with Chanel football scarves and personalised No.5 (see what they did there?) Man U football jerseys. There was a visit to Aviva Studios, the new home to the Manchester hub for all things arts and culture, Factory International (a nod to Manchester’s art scene and Viard’s love for Joy Division), as well as a reading by the punk poet John Cooper Clarke.
There was, of course, also a fashion show, for which Chanel took over an entire street - flanked by tattoo parlours and record shops - presenting a collection that sat somewhere between ‘local lass’ and the house’s traditional brand codes. Beatle caps were rendered in tweed, takes on slogan sweaters and souvenir scarves, patent leather-clad New Wave club girls and side-flick fringes. Oh, and bare legs only, bien sûr, all to the soundtrack of New Order’s Blue Monday.
Tilda Swinton, Kristen Stewart, Lucy Boynton and Hugh Grant were all in attendance, before the congregation moved on to Victoria Baths, the Grade II* listed building, for scotch egg canapés and a performance by the rock band Primal Scream. Couldn’t get more English if you tried.
