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“Initially I had Capri in mind, where the show was supposed to take place, but didn’t happen in the end because of lockdown,” says Virginie Viard of Chanel’s Cruise 2020/21 collection. “So we had to adapt.”
Instead, the Creative Director of Chanel brought Capri to us. Via the irresistibly sun-soaked imagery of Karim Sadli, Viard takes us on “Balade en Méditerranée“, or a trip around the Mediterranean. Awash in the brilliant red of the sun dropping over the sea, Viard’s Chanel Cruise 2020/21 collection comes to life in a campaign particuary stirring given the current travel restrictions.
Indeed, one look at Mica Argañaraz in a hot pink tweed twinset and slinky chain belt, or Karly Loyce in an embellished bandeau and chunky raffia flat makes us instantly want to pack our bags and set sail for the Sorrentine Peninsula.
Read: CHANEL SHOUTS FRENCH FROM THE ROOFTOPS IN PARIS
Inspired by the irrepressible allure and effortless glamour of the legendary actresses of the 1960s when they would holiday on the Italian and the French Riviera, the Mediterranean coast played muse to Viard. “Not only did we decide to use fabrics that we already had, but the collection, more generally, evolved towards a trip around the Mediterranean,” she explains. “The islands, the scent of the eucalyptus, the pink shades of the bougainvillea,” sensory snapshots that birthed the relatively easy-going collection.
Conceived to travel light with “a wardrobe that can be carried in a little suitcase on wheels, a shopper and an embroidered handbag” (how very Chanel), the collection features a few easy to wear, multipurpose items that go perfectly together, yet can also be transformed into singular, do-it-all pieces. Long skirts become strapless dresses when pulled up, long jackets in black chiffon can be worn by day over a simple triangle bikini, or by night, take on new form, paired with an embroidered bandeau top and jeans, “and if worn over bare skin, it becomes a déshabillé,” in the chicest possible way, of course.
Dresses in fine gossamer lamé are coupled with loftier jackets that can be untied and slipped over a pair of crêpe shorts, while wrap-around dresses and skirts liberate movement, the kind of pieces that carry with the warm summer breeze. Then there’s the brilliant pink of the bougainvillea, the searing shade illuminates suits in leather as supple as a second skin, and in tweed that’s been left deliberately unlined for more fluidity. And of course, the blue shades of denim, evoking the infinite blues of the Mediterranean Sea.
read: BACK TO SCHOOL. VIRGINIE VIARD REVISTS CHANEL’S MONASTIC PAST WITH A HAUTE TRIP TO THE CONVENT
A collection that both satiates our hunger for hot summer nights in the Med and makes us long for far-flung idylls, Chanel Cruise 2020/21 is a visual feast to be savoured – especially while we can’t lounge at La Fontelina, looking up at the Faraglioni, with a legendary iced sangria in hand…
view the Chanel Cruise 2020/21 collection below:
