Haute couture collection shows off Chanel glamour

A night in Place Vendôme. This season, under the dome of the Grand Palais, Karl Lagerfeld decided to recreate the fairytale-like atmosphere of the famous Parisian square. Under dark and starry heavens, white neon outlined the scaled-down versions of its building fronts.

In the centre, stands the famous column, ringed with lampposts. Crowning it, the statue of Napoleon has been replaced with one of Coco Chanel.

From her suite at the Ritz where she settled from 1930 to 1971, to its fine jewellery boutique later opened at Number 18, Chanel’s history is closely linked to this square which serves as the backdrop for the 2011/2012 autumn/winter haute couture collection.

On a black podium glistening like wet asphalt, models wearing lace masks and boots-like seamed stockings showed the various features of a new allure.

Outfits bearing accentuated hips brought about by the playful contrast between ‘dome’peplums over hobbled skirts, androgynous lines, precious materials with an urban spirit, such as the feather, a twofold symbol of Chanel’s haute couture and fine jewellery.

This season, more than ever, the suit is transformed, consisting of three pieces, or on the contrary, of just one piece, like the black trompe l’oeil model with a long entirely embroidered skirt and a jacket that reveals the illusion of a sequined fuchsia blouse.

The jacket, with its interplay of curves and straight lines, embodies the masculine-feminine duality of the Chanel look.

With broader backs and rounded shoulders, jackets in mixed-yarn grey tweeds are roomy and comfortable, expressing an androgynous attitude. Others create an impression of heightened femininity.

This contrast in forms also emerges in the eveningwear, with sheath mermaid dresses in silk crepe or lace, ornamented with capes and peplums. Silk tube dresses are delicately pleated.

Strength versus fragility, raw fabrics and precious embroideries, these materials join forces to unite haute coutureand urban chic. Tweeds take on a lustrous brilliance, damasks flirt with crackled effects and embroidery plays withquilting.

Emblematic of haute couture and high jewellery, feathers showcase the know-how of Chanel. Feathers are used to cover or hem peplums on dresses or tunics, in tweed style quilting, applied to chiffon or organza dresses, or embroidered by Lesage as a motif on a train.

Another symbol cherished by Mademoiselle Chanel, the camellia, is moulded at will, rosette style, shaped into ruches, or used as motif to highlight the silhouette.

Jewelled buttons are also in the spotlight, adorning daywear dresses and suits, or following the curve of the back on romantic dresses.

To set the stage for the nocturnal atmosphere, tweed, organza, satin, silk crepe, silk chiffon and tulle come in a palette of blacks and near-blacks (such as anthracite, purple and navy) and white, electrified with hints of fuchsia pink.

The accessories exhibit this very couture and very Parisian spirit: slouchy boots, embroidered with sequins in a tweed-like style,or bearing a satin ribbon aresomewhere between a tuxedo and seamed stockings, and little boaters by Maison Michel are made of tweed and edged with feathers.