”We are in the middle of nowhere and Fashion House is the only reality”, – said Karl Lagerfeld in an interview of a new Chanel haute couture spring-summer collection. At a time when some gossip about the imminent overthrow of the international groups’ dictates, and others hole up at home, yielding their places in the front row, the great Kaiser of fashion finds a worthy of himself answer to the recent sad events in Paris – their complete disregard. Show must go on.
Hence under the glass arches of the Grand Palais the decorations of Karl’s imagined reality grow again. Under the blue cloudless skies reflected in the calm surface of the pond, slowly defile mannequins on a minimalist green lawn, entering and leaving wooden cube houses. “It is time to marry ecology with haute couture. Luxury should be environmentally friendly,” – develops his vision Lagerfeld. Who, if not him, with his unlimited possibilities and inexhaustible ideas, is in the power to create dresses from … wood. Yes, you heard right, embroidery, sequins, a 3-D ruffles are made from recycled paper and an organic wooden thread. While the final bride look, a combination of a hoody jacket and a dress with a train, is made of wild cotton.
The predominant color palette, all according to the Zen rules, is of natural beige shades. The length and the cut are conservative – pencil mid-calf skirts. In troubled times it is common to turn to the traditional values.
But what would happen to haute couture devoid of its enchantment? As if remembering this, catwalk smoothly transitions to evening dresses, some of which – such as, for example, a set of a bustier and a skirt entirely embroidered with silver sequins with a draped cloak over it as if woven from star dust – takes us into the world of dreams and fantasies. Haute couture is all left of eternal values, the last bastion of luxury in a world ruled by a society of high consumption. The only reality created from a dream.

Photo credits: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages