Chanel Fall 2015

I'm wild again
Beguiled again
A simpering, whimpering child again
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, am I

Corny but true. There are so very few moments when one can actually be gob smacked by a collection... oh, in a good way... but how can anyone really say that this was not amazing just in its breadth alone! What is so out of the ordinary here is that there are no rules for Karl and Chanel. Together they do as they please, they laugh at the likes of the newbies, they do not have the word edit in their heads, and most of all they KNOW that this is a business of selling clothes and boy oh boy there will be vigils set up outside Chanel stores starting soon enough.

Before I ooze on about this, in a rare moment of abandon, the setting needs to be discussed, Brasserie Gabrielle... you just have to love it and even better is that it just made sense. This is an urbane and big city collection that reminds those us who can still recall ... ladies who dressed for lunch and ladies who wore suits and when designers showed collections that actually looked like the season they were showing. Retro?? Not at all, but jeez Louise, this was the international tweed festival.

So with all that being said, there were jackets/suits /coats/ dresses galore … from the classics to the Chanel parka to the Comme des Chanel puffer. There were signature Chanel looks to beat the band and it just wouldn’t be Chanel if there were not the most outrageous of styles that some rabid fan will scoop up and wait for their photo op while wearing it. What is interesting is that even Chanel has offered less evening wear and concentrated more on day clothes which will no doubt prove to be one of the reasons why the season will be a resounding success. There are amazing items, incredible fabrications and even some literal translations of what was like the cap toe sling back which will have waiting lists for months after this and their handbag business will be on fire. Not lot of jewelry was used or really any other stylized gimmicks. The mood was the “restaurant” and its habitués.

All things aside, maybe it is my own nostalgia that fuels my enthusiasm, but I firmly believe that the world of so called designer women’s fashion is not only inhabited by the likes of the Saint Laurent gal or the Dior client or the Gucci nerd. If there is anyone who can genuinely turn the tide and course it is Karl. He is far more powerful than any of the others, singularly or collectively, and everyone knows it. Say what you will, the proof remains that Chanel sells while the others languish on racks and when so many other designers rely on other categories rather than clothes to “make their numbers’ Chanel sells across the board!

So yes, the collection will either be a source of adulation, adoration or of scorn... your call... you know what I think without really taking it apart. Hail to the Kaiser!!

PS you really need to see the collection it its entirety…..