“I don’t know if this is because of the times we live in, but I wanted something warm, lively,” Chanel creative director Virginie Viard said as she began to describe the French maison‘s Fall 2021 collection, which debuted today via a 10-minute Inez and Vinoodh-lensed short film. As the opening notes of Diana Ross’s “Do You Know Where You’re Going To” ring out, smoky-eyed models, such as Swiss newcomer and runway regular Rebecca Longendyke, make their way down Saint-Germain’s rue Princesse before entering the legendary club Castel once visited by the likes of Françoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg (a far more intimate venue than the vast Grand Palais where Chanel often stages its seasonal spectacles).
“I imagined the models doing a show for themselves, going from room to room, crossing each other in staircases, piling their coats up in the cloakroom and going up to the next floor to get changed,” Viard said of the season’s lineup, which was a combination of two influences, she continued: “the ambiance of ski holidays, which I adore, and a certain idea of cool Parisian chic, from the 1970s to now.” Leaving midriffs exposed, sheer chiffon overlays peek out from long tweed coats left unzipped; save for tall black boots made of faux fur (which can ingeniously be removed for a sleeker footwear option), legs are left bare thanks to abbreviated hemlines in the form of slit skirts and mini party frocks.
Of course, should one need to cover up, there are plenty of options as well: quilted snow suits—soon to be spotted on the Gstaad set, surely—are made to be paired with strappy sandals or camellia-adorned pumps; high-waisted pants in fuchsia and cobalt come embellished with double C’s; a menswear-inspired black shirt appears under a navy lurex suit, inspired, in part, by the late Karl Lagerfeld muse Stella Tennant, Viard notes; and a dazzling gold trench, worn by Rianne Van Rompaey, closes the season. We may not be going much of anywhere these days, to answer Ms. Ross, but when we do, we know what we’ll be wearing.
Below, watch the Chanel Fall 2021 video.
