A STYLISH STORY

Last night Chanel held their Métiers D’Art Fashion Show 2021. It was the first audience-free format. Chanel filmed its Métiers d’Art show at the Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley and which was reveled online last evening on the 3rd of December 2020. The Métiers d’Art means ‘art professions’. This title is given to the annual Chanel collection that pays homage to the small specialist workshops that Chanel began buying in 1984, in order to preserve the expertise and craftsmanship associated with French luxury. Today these ateliers are crucial to the everyday running of the iconic fashion house, providing Chanel with everything from feathers to embroidered buttons. What’s more, all of these specialized ateliers help to craft Chanel’s iconic, luxury handbags.

These specialist workshops include the milliner Maison Michel, the costume jeweller Georges Desrues, glove maker Causse, the feather-worker and flower-maker Lemarié and the famous embroidery house, Lesage.

Chanel’s Métiers d’Art collection is a tradition the house started back in 2002. Every December the show shines a light on the exceptional savoir-faire of its artisans. Each year, Chanel captures the history of its brand by designating a city that is linked to the brand’s past or present. Paying homage to the unique codes of Chanel. Past locations have included Moscow, Edinburgh, Bombay, Salzburg and Tokyo. This year was a bit different with the restrictions linked to the global pandemic. The Chanel fashion show took place a little closer to home at the Château de Chenonceau in France.

A beautiful show that highlights the exquisite skills of Chanel. Here are 5 fashion facts about the show.

1. There was only one VIP guest present: the one and only, Kirsten Stewart. actress, fashion muse and model. Initially, there was suppose to be 200 invited guests, but with the new restrictions in France linked to the Global Pandemic, drastic changes needed to be put in place. In total there was a cast and crew of 300 and only one VIP guest at the Chanel show.

2. This was the first Chanel fashion show of Virginie Viard, the house’s creative director, to be held outside of Paris. Although it is not the first castle to host the prestigious Métiers d’Art Chanel Fashion Show. For instance, Chanel held their annual Métiers d’Art fashion show at Austria’s Château de Leopoldskron in 2011 and then at Scotland’s Linlithgow Palace in 2012.

3. The architecture of the chateau itself features intertwined CCs, similar to the Chanel logo. These initials are in fact those of Catherine de’ Medici, the former queen of France.

4. Indeed, the location was once home to Catherine de Medici and is often referred to as the Château des Dames. It is a location which, as with all the Métiers d’Art shows, is linked deeply to the brand’s heritage and values. Virginie Viard highlighted that, “showing at the Château de Chenonceau was an obvious choice”. It was designed and lived in by Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de’ Medici, two women who greatly inspired Coco Chanel.

5. Last but not least, to complete the fashion experience, for the first time, Chanel produced exclusive content that can be unlocked by invitation only. It includes photographs of the castle by Teller compiled into a coffee-table book, as well as audio clips that recount the fascinating history of the place. With narrators including Keira Knightley in English, Penélope Cruz in Spanish and Anna Mouglalis in French. All three women are modern day muses for Chanel.