There is a story by Spanish post-Romantic writer Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer that I first read 15 years ago and that I still genuinely love. It’s entitled “Maese Pérez, The Organist” and it’s part of Bécquer’s anthology of tales entitled Leyendas (Legends). The story is about an organist who can play so beautifully that every year the people gathered in the local church for the Christmas Eve mass swear they can hear choirs of angels singing through the organ pipes. When Maese Pérez dies, his ghost comes back to play the church’s organ. I think what I loved best about the story was not only its strong supernatural elements, but also the descriptions of the attires of the people from different social classes who turned up at the Christmas mass. The author writes about the ladies wearing rich jewels and the knights wrapped in richly coloured and embroidered cloaks, holding in one hand their hats decorated with plumes that sweep the floor, and letting the other rest upon the polished hilts of rapiers or the jewelled handles of daggers.
The ghost of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s Maese Pérez the organ player must have been haunting Karl Lagerfeld as he designed the Autumn/Winter 2008-09 Chanel collection and devised the sets for its presentation at the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week.
Majestic steel grey tubes resembling organ pipes dominated the arena of the Grand Palais while models clad in outfits clearly inspired by the vertical, sculptural and architectural silhouette of flue and reed pipes, paraded around them. Coats had cocoon-like shapes, one-piece coat-dresses recalled the tubular shape of organ pipes and so did the tweed dresses and skirt suits. Mini-tubes decorated the wrists, waists and hems of dresses or hobbled skirts, while cones of sculpted fabric jutted out of tubular skirts.
Ostrich fringes substituted the classic Chanel trim and eveningwear featured sinuous dresses with womanly silhouettes, painstakingly embroidered details, tubular appliqués used as gothic fringes and cascades of roses. The palette was dominated by warm and cool greys, from lighter tones and nuances to darker ones. The colour worked its way into every fabric, from wool to liquid chiffon, metallic taffeta and cybernetic and futuristically modernist armour-like dresses with Medieval-like semi-detached sleeves and multi-levelled pipes of fabric.
Occasional bursts of pink appeared on the catwalk in the form of a long evening dress with flattened organ pipes. Accessories such as brooches or crystal necklaces were incorporated into the design, complementing the outfits and adding a touch of glitz and glamorous grandeur highlighted also by the court shoes with Lucite stiletto heels.
For this wonderfully choreographed and theatrical collection, Lagerfeld might have had in mind a more mature, fierce and powerfully chic woman who is most definitely in control, but he must have enjoyed like a child while playing with folds, draping and ruffles and transforming them in the most extraordinary haute couture organ pipes.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
http://www.boxxet.com/my/badgeBN.80.15.js?boxxetId=u23036
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
http://www.boxxet.com/my/badgeBN.160.30.js?boxxetId=u23036
Rispondi