He’ll always have Paris — even during cruise season. Karl Lagerfeld is to parade his next cruise collection for Chanel in the French capital, reaffirming his attachment to the city and its importance for fashion, WWD reports.
Chanel confirmed May 3 as the date of the show, but has yet to disclose the venue or other details.
Lagerfeld and Chanel recently privatized the Ritz Paris and staged three shows for the Métiers d’Art collection, a pre-fall range of ready-to-wear embellished by the specialty couture ateliers that Chanel owns. He dubbed it “Paris Cosmopolite” to evoke a time when elegant women from all over the world converged on the mythic Place Vendôme hotel, established in 1898.
The Rue Cambon house has been a pioneer in staging itinerant shows and has taken its cruise collection as far afield as Havana and its Métiers d’Art collection to Dallas. Lagerfeld typically uses each destination to exalt a facet of the house’s lore — or to invent a new chapter.
Watch on FN
But Paris remains a key font of inspiration for Lagerfeld, whose Métiers d’Art effort for Chanel in December 2015 was themed “Paris in Rome.” Staged at Cinecittà film studio No. 5, it boasted a transporting black-and-white streetscape that elicited a strong emotional tug as the show fell only weeks after the deadly terror attacks in cafés and concert halls that sent Paris reeling, spooking tourists.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo hosted a lunch for top editors during the most recent fashion week and solicited suggestions to lure visitors back. Among the ideas was for French houses to scale back destination shows and bring their elite audience of press and clients to Paris.
A growing number of European houses treat fashion as a movable feast, with Max Mara recently parading its pre-fall and a one-off capsule range in Shanghai.
Dior said Tuesday it is heading to Los Angeles for its cruise show on May 11. It will be Maria Grazia Chiuri’s first effort for the resort season.
