Photo: Chanel
HEAR ME ROAR
Chanel’s Metiers d’Art collection has always been a showcase of what the best couture ateliers can do. This year, Virginie Viard placed French craft in dialogue with the continent of Africa, by bringing the show to Dakar, Senegal. It lent a new electricity to her work. Her tweed suits were charged with a Seventies spirit—fitted on top, flared and elongated below—in a way that felt fresh, instead of nostalgic. The palette was vibrant, filled with ochres, emeralds and corals. There were mosaic patterns and animal prints; beaded jewellery and thick bands of gold set with coloured stones in addition to the customary pearls. On the accessories front, the House’s classic flap bags came in gradated hues of the African desert—some with chunky wooden handles, others encrusted entirely with sequins. Best in class was the minaudière in the form of a golden lion, its mane a burst of little pearls. As both the zodiac sign of Coco Chanel and the emblem of Senegal, it represented the perfect symbiosis of two cultures in conversation.
The lion minaudière is priced at $22,520 and available at Chanel, #01/25-29, Ngee Ann City (tel: 6645 1900).