Chanel’s Paris-Bombay Metiers d’Art collection

Chanel recently unveiled its Paris-Bombay Metiers d’Art collection at the Grand Palais in Paris, where the Galerie Courbe was transformed for the day into a luxurious Maharaja’s palace.

Every year since 2002, Chanel has used the Metiers d’Art show as an opportunity to showcase its craftsmanship.

The artisanal crafts of embroidery, leather work, featherwork, boot-making, millinery, and gold and silversmithery are represented by Lesage, Montex, Desrues, Lemarié, Massaro, Michel and Goossens.

Under the glow of chandeliers and ceiling lights, the Paris-Bombay collection 2011/12 was supposed to evoke a new femininity.

“The charm of India, the pomp and splendour of fabrics and the magic of gemstones intermingle with the Chanel aesthetic of cascading pearls, contrasting black and white, and braided tweed jackets,” according to Chanel.

The silhouette emerges in soft shoulders, flared panelled skirts, a gold-embroidered tweed dress with kimono sleeves or painted with a flowerbed motif swaddled in layers of lace and muslin.

The sari look is supposed to create a modern masculine-feminine concept, inspired by Maharajah style, and very feminine with a dainty jacket with diamante epaulettes.

Inspired by the achkan, the brocade jacket with Nehru collar is manifested here in a series of alter-egos: a gold-embroidered darted jacket with pearl braiding, a white plastron jacket with mirror-embroidered pockets, a darted half-belt jacket with baroque-pearl-studded collar, a riding jacket and crested blazers with tailored shoulders.

Jewel-buttons, jewelled bindis adorning the forehead, splashes of pink, and leather thigh-boot flats stamped with Arabesque motifs were chosen to set off luxuriant materials: duchesse satin, silk, brocade and crepe.

Signature tweed swathed in a ruby sheen contrasts with metal capsules embroidered on the back of a criss-cross collar.

Karl Lagerfeld sent out the collection with an embroidered ivory silk crepe dress draped over the body and head.