Chanel's Pop Symphony Parade in Manchester

In the heart of Manchester, the house of Chanel unveiled its new Métiers d'Art collection, designed by Virginie Viard. Here's an analysis.

Staging a fashion show in Manchester in the middle of December means subtly embedding oneself in the history of a city marked by music, whose musicians have left a lasting impact on the genre, extending beyond the city and even the country.

When it comes to this city, the first musical reference that comes to mind is the band Joy Division, later known as New Order. The cover of this band's first album, Unknown Pleasures, has become a global symbol, replicated on hundreds of thousands of t-shirts and artifacts of all kinds. The ever-growing influence of The Smiths, another major musical act, could also be mentioned.

However, the clever idea of the fashion show was to align not with the narratives of these iconic groups, but with a more pop and colorful history, less melancholic than that of Joy Division or The Smiths, dating back to the 1960s and 1970s. Michel Gaubert, who selects music for Chanel's shows, explains that the main musical inspiration for the show came from a particular moment in the early 1970s, when Manchester kids would gather on weekends at the Wigan Casino to dance to American soul hits and rarities. This practice, known as Northern Soul, had a lasting influence on English pop. Several tracks were covered by English bands, including the hit "Tainted Love," which in its version performed by the duo Soft Cell is one of the most representative hits of the 1980s, lively and whirlwind. The show played these cards: those of a very communicative joy, highlighted by its soundtrack but especially very present in the clothes themselves.

Pop Effervescence

The collection, as each year-end, is dedicated to the Métiers d'Art associated with Chanel. This year, it was particularly about tweed, and its unique weaving, which took center stage, featured prominently. But it was often in colorful patterns, showing a pop, bright, sharp approach. These girls seem ready to go out, have fun, slice through the night, take over the city. They evoke their predecessors from the 1960s, freeing themselves from constraints to create a line, a silhouette, sharp yet flexible. In this way, tweed, with its lines here reconfigured, becoming prominent, contemporary, links the swingin' sixties to 2024, in an unending quest for colors to restore the world's beauty. And its nonchalance. Virginie Viard, Chanel's artistic director, says: "Tweed is the central element of this collection. I thought a lot about Gabrielle Chanel, but I didn't want to recreate the look of Coco when she dressed in the Duke of Westminster's jackets. I was inspired by the Coco who gave colors to her tweeds. I added a pop effervescence to it."

The very setting of the event spoke volumes: the fashion show took place on a street in the north of Manchester where pubs and bars crowd together. What could be more pop than a pub? Thus, what was unfolding transcended the collection to embrace a much broader and dreamier field: the idea of how a young woman could take over a street, a neighborhood, a city. And invent stories, for the duration of a night, punctuated by songs that encourage dancing. As these girls walked, one could hear powerful, playful, and energetic tunes, such as "Necessary Genius" by David Holmes and Raven Violet, "What?" by Soft Cell, the original version of "Tainted Love" sung by Gloria Jones, and "Big New Prinz" by The Fall, a great but underrated Manchester band born in the 1970s whose influence on younger generations remains strong. All these songs had in common with the collection an overflowing energy that inspires one to go out, be outdoors, be at the height of one's own elegance.

During the finale of the show, it was a track by New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle," that underscored all this: its vivacity and brightness fully magnified the entire show, making it clear that it too was part of a love triangle composed of Chanel, Manchester, and music.