Another season, another Karl-led Chanel extravaganza. Formidable in taking us on a journey; we’ve seemingly been everywhere with him – from Ancient Greece to ’60s Hamburg – this time, we stepped into the woods, Karl’s woods – a forest, imagined by Lagerfeld, enchanted by Chanel. So what does Karl’s forest look like? Autumnal, tawny and slightly eerie; a soft haze fell over the Grand Palais – a stretch of barren trees, a thicket of shrub, creeping moss – damp and green. Then, of course, the carpet of fallen leaves – auburn, sage and rust – every inch of the Grand Palais was blanketed in them. It had both the quietude of nature and the melodrama of Chanel – both treated with beauty.

Autumn was taken literally, with the signature trope of the season – the leaf – playing out in both scene and sac (the latest unnamed bag is sublimely squishy and sure to stoke fashion fires and waiting lists).

Models crunched through leaves, at first, nonchalantly and more dégagé than previous years. Then halfway through, it was as if the clothes had moved them; the heavy Edwardiana coats and lofty tweed two-pieces prompted a march through the trenches. They didn’t have to prove anything. They were knowing and wise and comfortable in themselves. So comfortable, in fact, it was as if they’d done their hair themselves, as were Sam McKnight’s intentions. “I was inspired by the [girls] themselves when they grab their hair after a show and shove it up messy with an elastic,” McKnight explained backstage. “Don’t work too hard on it, it should look easy.”

And it did. Hair was twisted with little effort and a lot of blasé into annoyingly (imperfect) perfect top knots. Perfect because they were wearing Chanel, perhaps, but the youthful, almost punk-like twists were polished at the root – raked all the way off the face with little product – then pokey at the ends – spurting tuffs of hair with irreverent glee (and a lot of Modern Hairspray). Some were affixed with CC logo crystal brooches (not so irreverent), others with perspex flowers (getting warmer), whilst others were laid bare (that’s the spirit), just a humble hair elastic keeping their buns tight. Tight buns which sat erect and high, reaching the hair heavens, “The shoes were flat, so the hair went high!” McKnight exclaimed.

A hairstyle for the real Chanel girl; bouclé on, CC baubles in, a smattering of sparkle of face, and the top-knot is Chanel-ified. A simple yet very Chanel proposition for Autumn; let the leaves fall on both tweed and top-knot.

Teasing the knots for texture @chanelofficial makeup @tompecheux nails @errandonea_anny #hairbysammcknight using #modernhairspray #easyupdo #teammcknight

A post shared by Hair By Sam McKnight (@hairbysammcknight) on Mar 6, 2018 at 3:04am PST