Does the average twentysomething want to wear tweed? The fabric, the most legendary in the Chanel lexicon, was the big story in Karl Lagerfeld's couture collection today.
It's been a grey, drizzly and chilly week here in Paris. But Lagerfeld's sublime world, dreamed up for his spring couture collection, was immune to such dour inconveniences. He transformed the sprawling Grand Palais into an intimate garden with rose, ivy and jasmine-lined trellises and a sprouting fountain, serving as runway backdrop. The fact that the sun, finally decided to burn through the clouds and shine through the venue's glass panels, only brightened the mood.
And the clothes were bright — tweed suits and dresses with sculpted shoulders and floaty chiffon in variations of millennial pink, sugared almond pastels and saturated sorbet shades.
Here, Karl's tweed suits were unabashedly sweet and pretty, while the matching ankle boots with lucite heels gave a sense of cool. And it made a stark contrast from the futuristic eccentricity of the plastic dresses, capes, hats, shoes and bags he showed last October.
It can be difficult to see the relevance of couture to a young consumer when research shows she's more interested in experiences rather than luxury things. And yet the youngest members of Karl's front row were the ones who looked the most enthralled: Grownish star Yara Shahidi and English actress Ellie Bamber. And on the runway: the buzziest freshman of them all, model of the moment Kaia Gerber, making her couture debut.
