PARIS — There was no elaborate recreation of a bistro, no faux art gallery, no giant glacier. Designer Karl Lagerfeld steered clear of the type of Instagram-friendly mise-en-scenes he has constructed in the past for his Chanel runway shows. Instead, for fall 2016, he chose a more death-defying, calamity-courting path. He outlined a long, narrow, winding runway that gave every guest, including Pharrell Williams, an up-close, front row seat from which to view and inspect his clothes.
As the models whizzed by from the left and the right, they were at times so close that their skirt hems nearly brushed your knees.
It was possible to see the details of construction: the way that swirls of silver sequins were perfectly even and neatly stitched, the delicate fraying on a fuchsia dress, the way a skirt unzipped on the side to reveal as much leg as a woman desired. It was possible to easily distinguish between prints (camellias on trousers) and embellishments (the gold chain embroidery on jackets).
The styling was simple. The models wore shallow bucket hats and ropes and ropes of pearls in the nonchalant Chanel way. Some had slipped on gloves that zipped up the forearm. And the tweed or canvas shaft of boots connected to the leather foot with an open lattice weave that circled the ankle.
