Today's set was Boulevard Chanel, a street scene immaculately re-created down to the last puddle on the asphalt and pane of glass in the apartment buildings, but when Karl Lagerfeld's models took to that street in protest, toting feminist placards and chanting slogans, there were some in the audience who blanched at what they saw as political passion co-opted by fashion artifice, especially in light of the current events in Hong Kong. Lagerfeld said he conceived the show within 24 hours of his last epic, so today's headlines weren't as relevant to his concept as the manifestations—or demonstrations—that bring bits of Paris to a standstill on an almost daily basis. Taking it to the streets is a time-honored French tradition. "I thought it was fun to make a demonstration about a subject I can very well adapt to," he said. "My mother was a feminist, and I was brought up with a history of that."
Lagerfeld is fiendishly adept at such almost-throwaway statements, but the political subtext to his Chanel show today wasn't a mirage. Women's hard-won rights are newly threatened all over the world, from a Republican politician refusing to ratify the Violence Against Women Act in the U.S. to hard-line Islamists in the Middle East. "I don't see why every human being is not on the same level," said Lagerfeld, "especially in my business." He was also thinking about the turbulent events of May 1968, when Paris took to the streets in one of the definitive popular protests of recent history. "There was an air of freedom I never felt before in Paris," he recalled. "There was one line I loved: 'It's not allowed to tell people that things are not allowed.' Today, everything is forbidden. Political correctness killed everything."
Of course, absolutely none of that means shit to a tree if Lagerfeld didn't deliver a collection of equal substance. Bearing in mind that he is inclined to show at least twice as many outfits as any other designer on the calendar, the broad gamut of today's collection offered so much that the cumulative impact was energy tempered by fierce intelligence. Release and restraint, in other words. So there were exuberant psychedelic splotches of watercolor shading everything from coat linings to boots, but there were also pristine white lace yokes that recalled Lagerfeld's days as creative director at Chloé, whose founder, Gaby Aghion, died this week. "I normally never dig in my past, but suddenly I had a vision," he said. There was va-voom sweater dressing (and who else are you going to put in a va-voom sweater dress than Gisele Bündchen?), but there was also sober navy tailoring, with seams outlined in white. Lacquered pinstripes, Art Deco organzas, chain mail…don't even bother looking for a narrative thread; the fact is, as Lagerfeld said, "They're all pieces everyone can play with. No '60s, no '70s, no whatever, more mode de vie than mode."
And, in that, they embody a fashion vision where everything is permitted. Coming from a fashion house as august as Chanel, that's pretty radical. Almost worth taking to the streets for.
