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Chanel sends models into the woods in forest-inspired Paris Fashion Week show
The French fashion label hosted one of the most lavish shows of the season
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Your support makes all the difference.Chanel has paired the sartorial with the mesmerising and the mythical for its palatial show at Paris Fashion Week, which took place in an actual forest - sort of.
In a Midsummer Night's Dream vision come-to-life, the luxury French fashion house took over the iconic Grand Palais in the heart of the city for its autumn/winter 2018 show, filling the historic exhibition hall with majestic moss-covered trees and a runway scattered with leaves.
The abundantly autumnal aesthetic was a potent theme of the collection, with creative director Karl Lagerfield, drawing design inspiration from his favourite season.
Fashionistas from far and wide took their seats in Lagerfield's woodland paradise while the front row was a cacophony of A-list beauties and talents, with the likes of Carla Bruni, Carine Roitfield and Keira Knightley all taking prime seats to witness the sartorial splendour.
Putting a playful spin on the humble concept of taking a walk in the park, the collection was awash with deep ochres, bark-like browns and burnt metallics as rich as autumn's glossiest leaves.
Garments were embroidered with branch-like stitchings and lashings of beads in palettes of russet reds and pine greens in homage to the natural surroundings.
Of course, the 84-year-old creative director paid homage to Chanel's deeply entrenched tradition of tweeds, with ankle-length skirts providing a more modern and modest silhouette than the shorter hemlines that have prevailed in previous collections.
“You know, I’ve always loved autumn. This is a kind of Indian summer with all the leaves. It’s a beautiful mood,” Lagerfield told British Vogue.
Known for its crème de la crème casting, the pine-inspired garments were modelled by some of the industry's biggest names: from lauded British models Adwoa Aboah and Edie Campbell to Cindy Crawford's fresh-off-the-boat daughter Kaia Gerber, who at just 16-years-old has already modelled for almost every leading fashion designer around.
The privately-owned fashion brand is notorious for hosting majestic shows that transcend Paris Fashion Week's already elaborate sense of grandeur.
Renowned having one of the most generous budgets in the industry, Chanel's flair for the spectacular has seen shows take place in all sort of palatial permutations, from self-made spaceships to cascading waterfalls.
In case you had any doubts, this is not a brand that does things by halves.
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