It’s A Colorful World After All Thanks To Chanel Fall-Winter 2021-2022 Haute Couture Collection

After going digital in January, Paris Haute Couture Week is finally back, with major luxury labels holding physical shows to unveil their autumn/winter 2021-2022 collections. French luxury house Chanel held the Fall-Winter 2021/2022 show today in Paris, and after so many months of gloom and uncertainty, it was a relief to see a show bursting with colors. This collection is imagined by Virginie Viard, the quiet and creative force who has revamped Chanel with a modern and feminine twist, since she was appointed the new artistic director of Chanel in 2019.

Painting is at the heart of the Chanel Fall-Winter 2021/22 Haute Couture collection: "It was when I rediscovered these portraits of Gabrielle Chanel dressed up in black or white 1880s-style dresses, that I immediately thought about tableaux," explains Virginie Viard, creative director of the French luxury house. “Works by Berthe Morisot, Marie Laurencin and Édouard Manet. There are impressionist-inspired dresses, skirts that look like paintings and a long white satin dress punctuated with black bows like Morisot's...”

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Mikael Jansson, who took the pictures for the press kit while Sofia Coppola made the film and the teasers for the collection, photographed the actress and ambassador of the House, Margaret Qualley, wearing a jacket and A-line skirt in multicolor tweed over a bustier in pink broderie anglaise. Embodying a multitude of muses, the actress and Chanel ambassador moved through the Palais Galliera, the backdrop for the runway show.

Photo by Mikael Jansson

Photo by Mikael Jansson

Photo by Mikael Jansson

Indeed, when it came to choosing the location, it made perfect sense for this show, bursting with colors, to be held at the Palais Galliera, the famous museum of fashion and fashion history, where the exhibition dedicated to Gabrielle Chanel continues. “Because I love seeing color in the greyness of winter,” continues Virginie Viard. “I really wanted a particularly colorful collection that was very embroidered, something warm.”

Like an Impressionist painting, the sequined tweed of a coat seems to be made up of a multitude of paint strokes. Blouses embroidered with mauve and pink sequined motifs, or with little red, blue and yellow daisies on a black background, are tucked into low-waisted skirts in multicolor striped tweed. Pale pink and yellow tulle pompoms embellish a black paletot jacket, just like splashes of paint…

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

“There are dresses embroidered with water lilies, a jacket in a black tweed crafted from feathers with red and pink flowers,” says Virginie Viard. “I was also thinking about English gardens. I like to mix a touch of England with a very French style. It's like blending the masculine and the feminine, which is what I’ve done with this collection too. That twist is very much a part of who I am.”

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

We literally got goosebumps at the end of the show, as the bride made her entrance in a retro-inspired gown, with a veil embellished with small colorful sparkles and a bow tie, holding a bouquet of flowers in different colors. The bow tie was present throughout the collection, adorning the models’ hair styled in Mohawk braids.

Photo: Courtesy of Chanel