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Typically, when Karl Lagerfeld tells us what to do, we do it. Willingly. This will be case for the recent Chanel Cruise 17/18 show, with Karl and co. taking us back to the beginning of modern civilisation; Ancient Greece. Time to arm your Trojan Horse with black ribbon and plenty of gold, it’s a little case of history repeating.
Karl has clocked some serious sartorial mileage as of late, with his passport burgeoning with stamps from Cuba, South Korea and now Greece, bringing the Parthenon to Paris in a theatrical, très-Karl spectacle. Replete with ageing ruins, knotted olive branches and rosemary and sage, the fashion set were fooled into an ancient world of blazing Aegean skies and white-washed marble (despite the French gloom outside).
Pleated togas and kaleidoscopic gladiator sandals aside (but seriously, that column heel), the hair imagined by visionary Sam McKnight was nothing short of spectacular, with the hair adornments of the ancient era taken from BC to millennial AD with a touch of bling.
Under the watchful eye of the beauty Gods, an Elysian hair dream played out, modernised, but with cultural motifs aplenty.
McKnight teased out Karl’s notion of an “idea” of Greece, his own conceived mythology in a way, and so forth a treasure trove of hair jewels were born. Delicate leather floral halos – in a matte gold finish – replaced the olive branch wreaths of old.
Bejewelled crowns with crystal, beaded flourishes adorned model hair with all kinds of nai (yes).
Whilst chunky, plaited wreaths in modern, metallic leather paid homage to the knotted turns of Ancient Greek hair.
Then of course, there were the ribbons.
A girlish take, McKnight’s black silk ribbons breathed new, youthful oxygen into the past. Tucked beneath braids or wrapped around like headbands, black ribbon streamed as models navigated Karl’s Ancient Greece.
A heavenly final touch – gilded laurel-leafed accessories – planted tenderly in a bed of plait and ribbon.
Credit: Instagram @sammcknight
Hair was worn long, or kome – a style conversant to the women of the time – and pulled softly into low, half-up braids or pinned. Sitting in loose, wispy tuffs around the face, the philosophy (we were in Ancient Greece after all) was effortless; rumpled and romantic and timeless in its articulation, as only McKnight knows how.
It was cool-girl-meets-Greek-Goddess, a gentle romance with the beat of the Hellenic heart. Now picture Aphrodite, Greek Goddess of Beauty, dressed in bouclé with an dramatic winged-eye and ribbons in her hair. Can’t you just imagine it?
