Fashion blogChanel This article is more than 9 years oldThis article is more than 9 years oldDesigner plays to fashion's consumerist heart with Paris show in which 'frowers' play shoplifting as models stroll down the aislesA riot broke out in a French supermarket on Tuesday morning, as well-heeled shoplifters – including pop star Rihanna and the model Cara Delevingne – tried to pilfer household goods and own-brand consumables. Well, not quite.
The scene did take place, but the "supermarket" was a purpose built Chanel superstore within the walls of the Grand Palais in Paris, and the "riot" was unleashed by the latest catwalk show from designer Karl Lagerfeld.
It was arguably his finest runway reimagining to date. For a designer who has recreated an aeroplane and an iceberg this was quite a feat.
Before the show began guests strolled up and down the aisles shrieking with delight at everyday items given the Lagerfeld treatment: CoCo Chanel Coco Pops, and Confiture de Gabrielle – both nods to the house's founder.
Fashion editors posed with shopping trolleys amid this Warholian fashion extravaganza, before models posed as shoppers, strolling around the superstore in a choreographed performance.
To a muzak-inspired version of Rihanna's Shine Bright Like A Diamond, Delevingne stomped through the supermarket selecting a Chanel-branded brandy bottle and a large feather duster. Meanwhile, fellow model Stella Tennant went about her weekly shop carrying a shopping basket made with the familiar Chanel motive chain woven into the basket wire. Another model pulled a padded shopping trolley on wheels around the aisles. Even the most impervious fashionistas were delighted at the scene.
Did the clothes get lost in all of this? For some, perhaps. But this wasn't a multimillion-euro tactic to obfuscate some below par designs. On the contrary this was one of Lagerfeld's most inspiring collections yet.
The clothes – created within the tough remit of incorporating the house codes such as the tweed suit and large pearls – felt relevant and urgent, borrowing from street culture in the savviest of ways. A tweed tracksuit was both cool and beautifully tailored, and worn with holographic trainers felt fitting with fashion's new move towards haute comfort dressing. The models all wore their hair in crimped ponytails with Chanel tweed rags and edible sweetie necklaces. It was swampy-chic on a Chanel budget.
Models in big coats over disco leggings and trainers or leather shorts over leather tracksuit bottoms suggested a cool, "just popped out for a pint of milk" silhouette that only the few can look good wearing.
Why Lagerfeld feels the need to out-do himself with such catwalk extravaganzas each season is a question often asked in the fashion world. One reason is because he can. At 80 he has a phenomenal output of more than 30 collections a year suggesting a workaholic mentality. Another reason could be that, in a season in which the accepted highlight was meant to be designer Nicolas Ghesquière's debut at Louis Vuitton on Wednesday, Lagerfeld wanted to show that Chanel can still steal the headlines. A likely reason is that the designer is thinking of his legacy.
Last season Lagerfeld riffed on fashion and art, but this season's supermarket sweep collection suggested he believes commerce and desire are equally as valid and not something to be ashamed of.
At the end of the show, sensing that the audience might lose their cool when faced with such unique items,the voice of the supermarket manager – Lagerfeld – announced that his "valued customers" were free to take the sweets and vegetables from the aisles.
The designer understands that branded goods which will never be available to buy on the open market are the absolute pinnacle of desire in a materialistic world. His silent statement – brand anything with the Chanel stamp and they will want it – played out predictably at the end of the show. Fashion editors charged into a scrum in the bricolage aisle, literally fighting for a doormat bearing the words "Mademoiselle Prive". A chainsaw with the visual gag of a chain handle as the saw was spilled in the melee.
Alas security guards politely told guests they could not leave the premises with the goods. Next season "Display Only" is the most desirable trend of all.
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