Cake-eaters and avoiders alike gathered at Versailles on Monday to take in Karl Lagerfeld ’s rock-inflected vision of Marie Antoinette.
/var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/01_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13768054-1-eng-GB/01_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_CC.jpg /var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/01_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13768054-1-eng-GB/01_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_C0.jpgPhoto by Karl Lagerfeld
/var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/02_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13768005-1-eng-GB/02_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_CC.jpg /var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/02_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13768005-1-eng-GB/02_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_C0.jpgPhoto by Karl Lagerfeld
/var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/03_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13767998-1-eng-GB/03_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_CC.jpg /var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/03_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13767998-1-eng-GB/03_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_C0.jpgPhoto by Karl Lagerfeld
/var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/04_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13767991-1-eng-GB/04_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_CC.jpg /var/elleuk/storage/images/catwalk/designer-a-z/chanel/cruise-ss-2013/collection/04_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl/13767991-1-eng-GB/04_cruise-2012-press-kit-by-kl_C0.jpgPhoto by Karl Lagerfeld
The setting for Chanel’s Cruise 2013 show couldn’t have been more opulent: models processed around a recently restored fountain in the 17th century palace’s gardens. Watching them were 400 guests, including Vanessa Paradis , Tilda Swinton, Haider Ackermann , Sam Taylor-Wood and Aaron Johnson.
The clothes came ruffled yet aggressive, with skirts that flared at the hip into broad, look-at-me panniers. Harlequin checks and gold-frogged denim (for men as well as women), and wide, Acne-style culottes brought swagger. White-soled brothel creepers toughened the frothier looks.
Reduced to its constituent parts, this was Chanel, all Chanel: the little double-breasted tweed jackets, the quilted bags, the structured black-and-white dresses were all present and covetable as ever. This was a France as far from austerity as the models’ pastel wigs were from real hair.
It was ‘serious frivolity,’ Lagerfeld said—and who wouldn’t like the sound of that?
