Hippias Major: Chanel 2010 Fall Prêt-à-Porter

Chanel shows rarely disappoint me. It is one of the high-lights of Paris fashion week for me ( especially during Fall/Winter seasons, as I tend to like it better than its predecessor). This shows was no different, after all, this show was picked as one of 10 best shows of the season out of every major fashion shows from every fashion capitals of the world (yes, New York, London, Milan and Paris) by Vogue editors.
This season, Karl Lagerfeld treated fashion fans to a 'fur-fest'. Except for few dresses here and there, every look had fur and lots of it but the twist was, it's all fake (PETA people can breathe sigh of relief, otherwise it would have meant another strings of unsuccessful and pointless campaigns against the Kaiser Karl's credibility as a fashion designer and fur in fashion in general ). Just because Karl decided to use fake furs, this does not mean that the quality and desirability of the garments were in any way diminished. Karl, the atelier rather, came up with new ways to treat fake furs, or costume furs as Karl likes to call them instead of degrading term of 'fake' fur, to make them look more unique, beautiful and youthfully fun than actual fur pieces. Breath-taking and incomprehensibly intricate Haute Couture techniques only the house of Chanel has access to were incorporated. There were Chanel tweeds and braids woven with strands of fake fur. If this amazing technical feat was not enough there were also painstakingly detailed fur fringes and embroideries and so on.
Icicle resembling jeweleries and accessories were emphasised, which added unexpected freshness.

Production of the show also needs special acknowledgements and recognition. To bring Karl's vision to life, Paris's historic Grand Palais was turned into a glacial wonderland or fantasy North Pole if you like. 30 tons of bone fide ice berg was shipped from Scandinavia and models splashed their way around the ice berg in melt water filled runway. Karl managed to raise awareness with slight humor.
In every way, this was a milestone fashion event and I do not think I will be able to see another show like this anytime soon.

This show, as Chanel show usually does, contained whooping number of looks nearing 70, so instead of uploading all of them, I picked some of my favourite looks in the context of the themes explored in this show. To view the entire collection in HQ images with details, go to www.chanel.com

New technique of weaving fur into tweed was introduced in this season, which, as I understand, was never been done before. strands of short fur was woven into the tweed to create patterns and shapes. By weaving long furs into the tweed, usual stuffy and heavy feeling was gone and unexpected lightness was there. Woven long furs revealed tweed underneath it with movement, which mimicked the feeling of wind blowing away soft snow layers to reveal a solid ice.

I cannot even began to imagine how many sleepless nights these amazing garments required.

Opening look of the show. brown and white furs are woven in stripe into the tweed.

Black and white furs inter-woven to create pattern. Speechless!

There is no doubt that Karl Lagerfeld shaped the house of Chanel as we know it now almost single handedly. His aesthetics has become Chanel's legacy. There were few looks with cheeky self-references in this show.

High collar white shirts with large black tie is humourous approach to Karl's self-reference. With tweed jacket woven with furs.

Love the skirt made almost entirely out of Chanel braids

Furry pants received quite an unexpected appraisal.

This show featured series of beautiful dresses, which has become Chanel's trade mark under the Kaise Karl's reign alongside the famous LBD. A lot of fringe details were incorporated, which gave the dresses slightly deconstructed feel making them look fun, comfortable and very youthful.

My favourite dress.

The show ended with series of looks in white. Again, workmanship of each pieces that make up a look is amaizng to behold. I thought the white series was very serene and beautiful. The models looked like angels descended on pure ice berg untouched for centuries by civilisation.

Intricate details on this dress reminds me of the sculpted surface of an ice berg

Over-sized coats with over-sized collars seems to be in fashion right now, we see quite a few of these in this show. we also see them in leather from Givenchy and few from Burberry this season.