Virginie Viard remarked, “I like the mistral,” at a fitting the day before the Chanel cruise show in Marseille.
The designer was alluding to the strong wind that is known for driving people insane and that blows from Lyon, the city where she was born, to the Mediterranean shore.
With the minor storm that passed across the city on Thursday, Viard most likely received a little more bluster than she bargained for. On the moist rooftop of the Cité Radieuse, one of the architect Le Corbusier’s premier midcentury housing designs, models were buffeted by frigid gusts of wind.
Before the concert started, guests Charlotte Casiraghi, Phoebe Tonkin, Anamaria Vartolomei, and Lily-Rose Depp, who were all wearing black crop tops and miniskirts with flowery embroidery, took cover under clear plastic umbrellas.
“You know, I commit to the look. I don’t know if I was expecting so much wind and quite so much frostiness,” Depp grinned.
The ‘Idol’ singer claimed there were plenty of off-duty opportunities on this show after going viral with her ‘no trousers’ ensemble on a recent trip to Tokyo.
“If you’re going somewhere warm enough for a vacation, I really like the idea of a one-piece bathing suit as an outfit,” the woman remarked. “Every piece had a real life quality to it, and I really enjoyed the cinematic element as well.”
The range, which combined urban elements with playful nods to Provençal clichés—such as the purse modelled after a bar of soap that Amelia Grey Hamlin promoted—clearly targeted a younger audience.
The model wore a diamanté medallion necklace that spelt out the number 13, which is the Marseille postcode, along with her black tweed skirt suit. In observance of her birthday, June 13, she rolled her sleeves up during the fitting to reveal the tattooed number on her wrist.
Some styles had an androgynous bent, with pieces like tweed board shorts, black surf shoes, and terrycloth tunics with kangaroo pockets; other appearances were more feminine, such as white cotton and lace skirts that resembled more expensive versions of the antique nightgowns you can still get at neighbourhood flea markets.
Viard claimed that the thought of a beach town with a dash of gritty appealed to her. Marseille, renowned for its diverse population, football team, and violent altercations between competing drug gangs, provides all of that in abundance.
She remarked, “I adore its energy and beauty.” “I wouldn’t have performed the show in the neighbouring rocky coves or on the beach. La Cité Radieuse had a perfect feeling.
Constructed between 1947 and 1952, the enormous structure serves as both a tourist destination and a working residential structure with 337 apartments, a school, and a centre for modern art developed by designer Ora-áto. It also has a micro-hotel, a café, and shops.
Checked tweed suits that ended well above the knee were inspired by the grid facade accentuated with primary colours, and a grass green Mandarin collar jacket featured huge patch pockets that reflected the rooftop pool’s blue tiles.
The monotone tweed ensembles, crochet jackets, neoprene swimsuits and sheer skirts with intricate nautical designs in colours ranging from concrete to anthracite and jet black, looked stunning against the brutalist building.
The alternative bridal ensembles, however, were begging for a clear blue sky. Imagine eyelet lace slips, an ivory jacket paired with short-shorts, or a wide honeycomb skirt paired with a matching tiny cloak.
On the show’s teaser film, Viard collaborated with local dance group (La)Horde and director Ladj Ly.
For the event, Chanel organised a number of exhibitions, one of which featured a portfolio of photographs taken by British photographer Jamie Hawkesworth depicting the city and its people bathed in golden light.
Marseille, with its fish market and outdoor pétanque games, exudes a certain southern appeal on a sunny day, even though it lacks the glitz of French Riviera towns like Saint-Tropez or Antibes.
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“This city is all about the collision of cultures,” exclaimed Casiraghi, who had spent a portion of her early years in the neighbouring region of Provence.
In addition to being a thriving centre for all kinds of cultural endeavours, Marseille’s connection to football is essential to the city’s character. That’s what makes our city so charming and unmatched anywhere in the world, the Monaco monarch stated. She has been a Chanel brand ambassador since 2021.
She went on, “I’ve been to the Vélodrome [stadium] a few times to see OM play,” alluding to the football team Olympique de Marseille, which was playing Atalanta of Italy later that day in the first leg of the Europa League semifinals.
The football match, which was held less than a mile from the presentation venue, according to Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS, threw a strain to an already complicated event but also made sure that the city was buzzing. He declared, “That’s the real Marseille.”
By selecting Dakar, Manchester, and now Marseille as show locations, the luxury brand is reaching out to a new demographic of affluent customers.
Destinations with ties to the house’s history will always exist, but Chanel has entered a new stage of development where it’s about more than that. “Today’s world is more expansive,” stated Pavlovsky.
“We’re studying the energy of the world today, and that energy originates from urban settings as well, which may be less picturesque or spectacular but are nevertheless full of energy, meaning, and values,” he continued.
“The end product is a Chanel that is distinct yet identical. It’s the same since the home rules haven’t changed, yet it’s different because it requires guts and boldness to venture to somewhat unexpected locations,” he remarked.
Although Chanel has long supported Maison Mode Méditerranée, an endowment fund that helps regional fashion designers, Marseille has also sponsored exhibitions by less well-known companies, such as Koché and Jacquemus, both of which were invited to its OpenMyMed event.
Chanel, in an effort to engage the youth, has arranged a free exhibition at the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (Mucem) that runs from Friday through May 26. The exhibition features the creations of sixteen artists, working in conjunction with multiple specialised workshops from Le19M, the brand’s Parisian hub for craftsmanship.
Aspirational customers, who are most negatively impacted by inflation, are the target market for luxury companies, who are looking to expand their consumer base despite a global slowdown in spending. After three years of post-pandemic euphoria, Chanel, which is scheduled to release its annual results later this month, anticipates a normalisation of growth rates, according to Pavlovsky.
“A weaker, less favourable cycle is about to begin, but brands with strong fundamentals should weather the storm,” he said. We will definitely keep posting gains this year. I’m still really hopeful.
Although the executive admitted that domestic spending in China was declining, he pointed out that this was because Chinese citizens were spending more money abroad on their return trips. He claimed that Chanel’s total sales to Chinese customers are still rising.
He claimed it was too soon to assess the effects of a dramatic new ad campaign starring Brad Pitt and Penélope Cruz, and he declined to comment on the effect of consecutive price rises on sales of its handbags.
In addition, Pavlovsky sidestepped a question regarding the recent rumours surrounding Viard’s purported departure from Celine, specifically that Hedi Slimane will take over as creative director of Chanel. He shot back, “Virginie seems in good shape, no?”
