from the chiasmus archive: "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..."

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(A.Glass 2022)

Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/10/chanel-spring-2023-paris-fashion-week.html