Fashion is fantasy, but reality can really go beyond any kind of fantasy. Just a couple of days ago, Air France protesters didn't contain their anger about the dramatic cuts at the company and, after storming a management and union official meeting, they ripped the shirts and jackets off two Air France executives.
Images of a bare-chested Xavier Broseta, the airline's head of human resources trying to escape from the scene by climbing a chain-link fence, and of Pierre Plissonnier, vice-president of the airline's Orly airport hub, with his suit and shirt in tatters, quickly went viral, their ripped clothes a physical representation of the workers' anger and exasperation (View this photo).
Yesterday, instead, for Chanel's S/S 16 collection Karl Lagerfeld turned the Grand Palais into a travelling fantasy, a mock airport terminal that didn't feature any protesters.
There were indeed glamorous ground service attendants in smart uniforms, baggage checks, gates, a departures and arrivals board (the former including flights to the cities where Chanel's Cruise and Métier's d'Art shows landed, such as Dubai, Salzburg and Seoul) and baggage carts with double-C logos.
For Chanel's Haute Couture A/W 2015 collection, the fashion house's muses took the role of gamblers, but this time Lily-Rose Depp, Cara Delevingne & Co acted as passengers waiting to board their planes.
The clothes and accessories also pointed more towards passengers than sensual air stewardesses à la Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones out of Coffee, Tea or Me?, even though there were hints at uniforms in some of the tweed suits.
A multi-coloured tweed jumpsuit opened the show and the first outfits looked like reinventions of classic Chanel suits, clothes taken from the wardrobe of a grown up lady, but characterised this time by dynamic motifs of geometrical elements and embroidered tweed patterns.
Little by little, the designs evolved into more modern versions of pilot jumpsuits and sporty garments that young travellers may be opting for, in red, white and blue (a nod to the trademark colours of the French flag/Air France's cabin crew prints? In case, it would be better not to tell the angry protesters…).
Fun prints and motifs prevailed in the garments dedicated to a younger generation of consumers: a pattern of tricoloured intarsia planes was repeated on a cashmere sweater and pants; the airport motif developed instead into a print of departure/arrival boards. Some boards were also magnified, their squares turned into giant pixels; others were cleverly turned into appliqued motifs made with square sequins.
Fresher looks were often layered with chiffon dresses worn over pants (or pants worn with apron-like skirts) and there was also a section of tailored denim outfits.
Accessories included tweed baseball caps, mirrored aviator sunglasses, and airplane pins, even though the real protagonists were Chanel's rolling suitcases and carryalls.
Footwear went futuristic with see-through silver and transparent plastic lace-up boots and Velcro platform sandals that lit up with LED lights (representing plane floor lights or landing strips? Who knows, but imagine a more subtler version of Ashish's Buffalo Boots and you get an idea View this photo).
This was another Instagram friendly show, even though it was maybe less cluttered than the previous ones in which Lagerfeld opted for casinos, feminist protests and supermarkets, and the sort of fantasy that had the power to make all the fashion industry players who have been around for a month jumping from one fashion capital to the next, dream of being on their way back home.
In all this orgy of perfectly polished garments (mind you, the shiny pink outfits and the Roman gladiator-style tunics/skirts with floral prints may have even been edited out as they didn't add much to the flight-themed collection) designed with a wide range of passengers in mind there was something missing – the chance to refocus on the details.
Tweeds were indeed handwoven, while the traditional Chanel edging was transformed into a photograph of the hand-woven braid laminated to silicon (View this photo).
So what will the bestseller of this collection be? Bets are open on the Chanel wheelie suitcase, the luggage tags, or maybe the LED shoes (definitely not for the faint-hearted…), but as usual, time will tell.
What we know for sure is that air travelling is a glamorous and idealised fantasy in Lagerfeld's mind: there are no check-in queues, no third rate cafes and shops, no cheap airlines with staff trained to bully passengers weighting and measuring their cases and no anarcho-syndicalism on the tarmac. After all, Lagerfeld wouldn't know about any of these things, since he's used to a life of luxury that doesn't allow him to mix and mingle with ordinary people flying in economy class or on cheap flights. And yet, a little bit of genuine anarcho-syndicalism on the runway wouldn't be such a bad idea…
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