Grüße aus Hamburg
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Let the fawning begin
and bring out the smelling salts and the depends. The accolades are streaming in
and yet I can’t seem to see the supposed fabulousness of this presentation. Yes
the purpose is to display the work produced by the Chanel-owned luxury
artisan-specialist companies, Maison Michel (millinery), Barrie (Scottish
cashmere), Goossens (jewelry), and Lesage (embroidery). Yes, mission
accomplished, but the clothes certainly left a lot to be desired. This was commercial
Karl just a more expensive version …. Well at least for the most part.
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The real star here was the tailoring which seemed uncharacteristically
sharp/cleaner and offering a more defined silhouette to the suits, jackets and
coats. Yes, this was Karl coming home to Hamburg and much has been made of the
fact that Hamburg is a coastal /seafaring city hence the nautical influences. Even
the fisherman (aran) sweaters took on a Chanel touch when paired with leggings,
opaques and captain’s hats. I know, I know the cropped full legged sailor pant
is an iffy situation at best but oh the jackets and the coats.
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The overall effect was sort of this Night Porter meets Coco
meets Greenwich Village beatnik cool meets motorcycle mama meets "hey sailor.". The shoes were divine;
the accessories bountiful, the bags ranged from the Chanel standard fare to the
rather amusing accordion (concertina) but let’s go back to the hats which were part
of every total look. As is always the case with any Chanel collection , there
were the de rigeur Karl Klunkers and
this collection was possibly more rife with them than usual. The dresses seemed
oddly out of synch with the tone of the collection despite their over the top
embellishments. They ranged from downright “you must be kidding me” to “well,
if I must.” Don’t get me wrong there were a few looks that might even register as
amazing.
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One of the things that struck me was there was an almost
exact duplication of a suit from the 60s which was photographed on Romy Schneider
and being fitted by Coco herself. Seemed odd since Karl has always massaged and
manipulated the DNA but rarely if ever practically copied line for line let
alone in the same coloration. All in
all, to me, this was really not much to write home about but then again it is
still better than most of the flock’s best efforts.
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