See Chanel and fly? As much as the foreign members of the audience might wish, that’s not quite the case, since there are still 24 Paris hours to go till the Spring shows are over. Still, women of all nations were amused to check in ahead of time at the Chanel airport terminal Karl Lagerfeld installed in the Grand Palais. It provided a funny enhanced-reality replica of a situation we all know only too well: the one where we watch everyone else milling around, busy on their ways with their rolling suitcases, their tracksuits, and contra-freeze in-flight comfort sweaters, their practical flats for walking the endless corridors to baggage claim, and the crucial sunglasses for the jet-lagged arrival. Only, of course, all this is considerably upgraded: “It’s the idea of how it should look!” quipped Lagerfeld.
It is strange to see Chanel taking over the flight controls the day after a dispute between Air France and its workers came to an ugly head over falling business and layoffs. Instead, here was Chanel putting the best and most globally appreciated face of France forward, and laying out an array of products that will most certainly fly off the racks at duty-free and in all cities where the house has boutiques. Chanel has been most careful to clock up its air miles in customer-care outreach in the past couple of years: The destinations indicated on the Grand Palais departure board—Singapore, Dubai, Seoul, Tokyo—are all cities where Lagerfeld and co. have taken the double-C traveling show to first-class customers.
And what will this well-traveled international clientele be taking onboard from this particular show? Bits and pieces from all over the concourse, no doubt—a Chanel range that runs from the witty and kitsch (Chanel hard-case wheelie carry-on bags, Teva-type sandals with tweed straps and flashing runway-landing lights running around the soles), takes off in the ironic, insider trophy (’70s leisure jackets, plane-patterned tricolor intarsia cashmere sweaters, and a flash of Laura Ashley–esque puff-sleeved denim), and then lands amid sparkling splendor. The twinkling herringbone jackets and shell tops, paved in crystal and decorated with fat, black ribbon bows, are quintessentially, timelessly Chanel, nothing to do with novelty—yet also, in their way, an accessory rather than an outfit. In the congested skies of fashion, Captain Karl is one person who knows how to navigate Chanel in all the right directions.
