Editor’s note: Vogue Runway is closing out the decade by adding six archival Chanel shows to our collections archive. They honor the memory of Karl Lagerfeld, the giant and prolific talent who designed them, and speak to the 2010s obsession with all things 1990s. These shows might be pre-internet, but they contain many Instagrammable moments. Do share.
Chanel’s spring 1992 show opened with Linda Evangelista emerging, sort of like Little Red Riding Hood, from an enchanted forest boasting trees “carved” with hearts, intertwined C’s, and the motto “I love Coco.” Helena Christensen accessorized a little white dress with a rope of camellia-strung ivy that wrapped around her head and arms. Claudia Schiffer carried an adorable mushroom bag with a red-and-white polka dot cap, and Christy Turlington sported a hat made of wheat stalks. Then about halfway through the show, Karl Lagerfeld made it clear that this was no Eden full of naive Eves via belted military suits worn with huge fig leaves of the sort Adam usually wears.
The show’s focus was on borrowed-from-the boys shirting and tank tops. Those items can be linked to Coco; the house founder was known for both raiding her lovers’ wardrobes and proposing humble jersey knit, at the time only used for men’s underclothes, as material suitable for dressmaking. The high-low mix was certainly much in evidence in this collection. “You put a men’s tank top underneath [a suit] to bring it down-to-earth. It’s more modern but still suits a certain way of life,” Lagerfeld told Vogue. “Only now the feeling is more natural.” In an enchanted-kind-of-forest way, that is.
