Chanel. Spring 2023 - Paris Fashion Week
Virginie Viard has returned to her more noir inspired collections, akin to the 2022 Resort collection for Chanel, to which Viard drew a conceptual influence from the 1959 French novelist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau's final film before his death, “Le testament d’Orphée” (Testament of Orpheus). Viard works best when she explores, for her collections, the noir and gritty, yet elegant aspects of 1950s and 1960s French cinema. And since taking the reins of creative direction for Chanel from the late Karl Lagerfeld, Viard's crisscrossing from the stalwart Lagerfeld imprint to her more gothic inclinations, does indeed show her respectful attempts and drawing Chanel closer to her own personalized vision of the famous fashion house.
For Viard's Spring 2023 collection, she has further accentuated the melodramatic appeal of mid-century French film, incorporating the 1962 avant-garde movie "L'Année dernière à Marienbad" (Last Year at Marienbad) into her latest collection for Chanel. Seen both in the styles presented and runway setting, emulating the film's surreal landscape of dreams and relationships within a possibility of parallel worlds combining. There is an aura of gothic with its darkness and shadows displayed with the 71 ensembles, all reflecting the solemn and avant-garde as an inspired stylization throughout.
Even through the collection portrays a revival of 1960s counterculture, more so its postmodernism idealism to deconstruct 1950s modernist stagnation. There are hints in Viard's latest array that represent the amorous, with knee high fishnet stockings, miniskirts and lace, tulle and sheer looks throughout. The collection holds an aura of liberating aspects of feminine sexuality, which has been a slight trend on the runways from 2019, yet proven to be difficult to express without the gaudy, in light of the cheapen representations of sexual allure via social media.
However, Viard's latest Chanel showpiece does feel patchy and at times lost its own ambiguity, whilst drawing from the dreamlike L'Année dernière à Marienbad as a theme, Viard as mentioned, seems to be trying to release herself from the Lagerfeld legacy. Thus, degrees of inconsistency have surfaced from the Viard Chanel template in her attempt at sourcing an appeal from an illusive counterculture of the 21st Century, which does not exist. So, Viard's impact on Chanel would probably resonate a far deeper imprint, if she began to break down the iconic brand name, by redefining in appreciation of Lagerfeld, yet also gently putting the greatness of his reflection to rest.
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(A.Glass 2022)
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