Chanel. Resort 2022 – Paris (A.Glass 2021)

Virginie Viard gothic inclinations for Chanel continue on, as noted from her Couture showing in July 2020 within the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trend that has emerged for 2020 and going into 2021 is the return of the avant-garde with its dark overtures, with the use of film as a visual medium in promoting new collections.  Which is understandable considering 2020 was a year of lockdowns and aware of the impact that this virus has on society and culture, in turn has forced the fashion industry to adjust to this changed and uncertain landscape.  Viard for her latest collection has embedded the Chanel Resort 2022 collection within the Carrières de Lumières (Quarries of Light), situated on the outskirts of the Provençal village of Les Baux-de-Provence, this cavernous limestone quarry over the centuries has been used in carving out solid blocks of stone to be used in its town buildings, more so the construction of the historic Château des Baux built in the 10th Century and later pulled down by Louis XIII in 1633.   However, by the mid 1930s the quarry had been closed and in 1959 the French novelist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau began working on what would be his final film before his death, “Le testament d’Orphée” (Testament of Orpheus) he used its monolithic caverns to shoot his surrealist movie.  To this day Carrières de Lumières is now home to an interactive art gallery and curated space which projects the masters and their artwork onto these massive stone walls. 

Viard has based her latest collection around Jean Cocteau’s the Testament of Orpheus, which is the story of an 18th century dying poet, played by Cocteau himself, who has traveled through time, ending up in a what appears to be an apocalyptic wasteland, in an attempt at finding the meaning to his existence and the wisdom, yet not realized, of his own life.  The collection is reflective of the film’s tenet with Viard saying how she admired the brooding “modern” aspects of the film’s cinematography filmed inside the Carrières de Lumières, to which Viard’s Resort collection has complemented.  Defining modernism aspects rather than an overly draped and layered affair, Viard, since taking the reigns from the late Karl Lagerfeld has no doubt sharpened the Chanel imprint, removing some of Lagerfeld’s delicate styles that he had showcased in his long standing tenure with the celebrated fashion house, instead, Viard latest array has developed an overall rebellious impression for Chanel, intertwined within her latest ‘Cocteau‘ inspired existentialist themes.

There are aspects of late 1970s early 1980s punk/goth aesthetics shown throughout Chanel’s Resort 2022 collection with its fishnet stockings, miniskirts and cropped blazers.  These vampish and seductive cues are evident throughout the entire collection, allowing it to hold its own under the coalesce of ideas presented that is, despite Viard defining the modernist tailored look for the Chanel brand, has also melded into her latest collection a rawer experimentation with unpicked hemlines and loose threading.  However, Testament of Orpheus was released in 1960, as seen with Viard’s latest collection, she has included the hippie styles that followed 1950s bohemianism, with gypsy style flowing skirts of the 1960s which have also been inserted into this Resort 2022 collection.  This fusion of luxury modernism with its bohemianism, gothic and avant-garde styling certainly reveals an interesting statement under Viard’s creative direction, yet it feels like a plethora of ideas that, if one is to look at in an objective manner, seem slightly discordant.  Out of place.

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Authored: A.Glass 2021