CHANEL COLLECTION CROISIERE PART II

 

"Sky is the limit" or "Mirage in Dubai" could have been the title of this article,

I'm warning you that this article is going to be very long... During this event, I took over 600 photos with all my cameras, and after dozens of editings, I've come up with just a few hundred photos that I love... So yes, it's going to be a long post, but I can't bring myself to take a single moment out of it. I really had a hard time finalizing this post, it's as if I wanted to make this moment last a little longer... I'm taking you with me, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 

-5:34pm: Arriving at the site, boats await the guests. The light is amazing, it's already a bit magical.

 

 

-5:45pm: On the way to THE ISLAND, the building where the show will take place looks like a mirage.

 

 

5:52pm: with both feet on solid ground, I discover a field of candles strewn all over the ground, a small path between the tents leading to the show venue... As I get closer to the building that will house the show, I wonder if Chanel really had a double-C moucharabieh made?  

 

 

-6:02pm: Backstage! The magic is still working, and I'm like a kid in a candy store. I hope this adrenalin and excitement never leaves.

 

 

- 6:13pm: I'm looking for every camellia and embroidery I could find in the Lesage and Lemarié workshops! Look who's just above! Dominique, look!

 

 

- 18h26: More flowers, more flowers, embroidery everywhere, I'm bathed in an almost regressive bliss. I'm trying to make myself very small, all the dressers are standing at attention waiting for the models to finish their hair and make-up. 

 

 

- 6.32pm: On a table I discover a number of jewelry pieces, more treasures in every corner of this backstage area, I turn around until my neck is unscrewed, and then Karl walks by: it's as if everyone is moving aside and turning around as if they shouldn't meet his eyes. Okay, I want to make myself very small, but at the same time I'm hypnotized.

 

 

- 6.40pm: I think I've done the trick, as I start to see models arriving in the booth. The make-up, hairstyles and jewels remind me of the Paris/Bombai show, which I loved, and I want to be there!

 

 

-6:45pm: I can't bring myself to leave, I do one last little trick for the road, I even dare to touch. I'm going to wake up eventually.

 

 

- 6:52pm: I go through the inside of the building before going out again to photograph the arrival of the guests, I pass in front of my seat: Madame... I go from surprise to surprise, I think it's fair to say that I have a front-row seat. Make my lemonade with an "e" this time, I appreciate the attention...

 

 

- 7:03pm: Ok that's definitely a double C moucharabieh, it's brilliant! I'm a fan of giant palm trees, I think they're made of metal, very 50's. The decorative elements will then be dismantled and reused for store and window decorations when the time comes.

 

- 7.05pm: The veiled women go all out for make-up and accessories, handbags are carried in pairs, and I'm not even talking about the shoes, which are ever more mind-blowing.

 

 

- 7.08pm: All the guests are lined up on the small hard-surfaced path, which is a godsend for street style. Once again, it's hard to make a choice. 

 

 

- 7.10pm: People are impatient to get in, it's almost electric, they're stomping and fanning themselves, it's still scorching hot but the sun is setting fast. As the light fades and the building begins to brighten, the cast shadows of the double Cs take on their full meaning....

 

 

- 7.14pm: That's it, everyone's entering, taking photos of themselves in this setting, looking for their place, everyone's smiling, they must feel terribly important, and I'm in the middle of it all, laughing, I've got an unstoppable smile on my face, I've got the feeling that what I'm doing is just as valid as a real newspaper made of paper...

 

 

- 7.32pm: Night falls and the show begins, I'm too concentrated behind my lens to hear the music playing, it's balmy, and I start to get an eyeful of the first looks.

 

- 7.34pm: I'm craving gold high-waisted jeans and a nude silk shirt, not to mention the rhinestone moon-shaped head jewelry.

  

 

 - 7:34pm: Chanel reinterprets all the local imagery of the Dubai skyline, from keffieh prints to ancient flower ceramics. Above all, I feel a general Arabist inspiration with multiple influences, tales from the modern Arabian Nights more than an ode to pure Dubai culture ( yes yes look it up on wikipedia if you don't believe me ).

 

 

- 7:37pm: Passion sacs à main... a big thought for Atelier Lemarié and one for my sweet Karuna Balloo. I discovered on the internets, the existence of a handbag in the shape of a golden quilted jerry can, I love this kind of wink, a bit like the "lait de COCO" bag from the last show at the Grand Palais. Yes, I'm won over.

 

 

- 7:39pm: These silhouettes are my favorite parts, the colors, the patterns, the silk, so seventies too.

 

 

- 19h45: Coucou The DIY neoprene swimsuit for this summer....

 

 

- 7:47pm: Do you recognize the flowers we saw in the Lemarié workshop? And the little detail of the shoes lit by LEDs... I admire Karl Lagerfeld's ability to constantly renew himself, to make creativity and humor the driving forces that, despite the economic stakes, always re-situate fashion in a light, fresh universe. 

 

 

- 7:52pm: Absolute crush on this coat. I already loved the embroidery details on the hanger, but now I'm absolutely under the spell of the volume of this piece.

 

 

- 8:00 p.m.: Ah Lindsey Wixson... Yet another incredible moment, she really does look amazing!

 

 

 - 8:12pm: Let the party begin! It's the post-show interview race, the excitement is at its peak, I've got intravenous glitter... It's kind of my groupie bis moment of the evening VANESSAAAA.... ( Sorry Benjamin, you're a bit blurry...)

 

 

- 9.17pm: The evening continues with a private concert by Janelle Monae in a setting worthy of a thousand and one nights. What energy this little chick has! 

 My friends, what madness! I've just lived 3 days of daydreaming. To be able to follow a creative process: from the creation of the embroideries in Paris to seeing them come to life in the desert was just magical, fragile and ephemeral, literally a mirage. 

Chanel is a pioneer in the creation of monumental shows: installing wind turbines in the Grand Palais, making a giant handbag from which mannequins stepped out to parade, recreating an ice floe in Paris, setting up a giant supermarket last February. What could be crazier this time? Well, on a virgin island in Dubai, a building rose from the sand in just a few weeks to welcome, for a few hours, 1,000 guests from all over the world to celebrate the work of an iconic house, the ideas of a myth and French craftsmanship.

The photos in this article were taken with the new Leica T.