By and large, Paris Fashion Week so far this season has been on the dreary side, from the gloomy weather outside to the darker collections on display, in both mood and colour palette. Chanel’s fall/winter 2024 show, however, was a breath of fresh air, with the spirit of a cruise collection inspired by the French seaside resort town of Deauville. Known for its film festival and upscale vacation vibe—the town is cited in The Great Gatsby as Daisy and Tom Buchanan’s honeymoon locale—Chanel’s Virginie Viard whisked us away to Deauville’s cinematic dreamscape for a brief moment on Tuesday morning in an escapade from reality.
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From the very first big sun hat which stormed out onto the runway, you could tell Viard was transporting us back in time to a different era of Chanel. The early 20th century, to be more specific, when Coco herself vacationed in Deauville with Boy Capel—and opened her first boutique. This season proved the house has more than its fair share of enduring sex appeal done in the Chanel way, of course, with many coats and skirt suits rendered in the classic tweed. What the essence of all this really boiled down to was the feeling of being carefree, worlds away from the pristine and put-together image of Chanel which typically comes to mind.
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House codes like tartan patterns, the interlocking CC logo and the mix of elaborate costume jewellery and pearls were still prominent across the collection—but applied with a fresh-faced approach. The styling was both prim and proper, but also relaxed – there were quite a few pairs of jeans on the boardwalk runway here, worn with cosy cardigans and jumpers printed with imagery of birds by the beach. Some funkier prints, including that of Chanel-branded tickets on a party dress with a fluttery, free-flow robe to its back, were truly free-spirited in their appeal. Pastel hues, ombre patterns and a generally bright-coloured collection contributed to that feeling of living in a dream.
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The only thing Chanel loves more than fashion is cinema, and for good reason. As Viard well knows, viewing a good collection feels the same as watching a good movie—blown away, awestruck, completely absorbed by whatever just unfolded on your screen. And in a season where most designers seemed focused on the state of reality in some form of another, it was nice to get carried away by a fantasy for a bit. This collection, surely, was cinematic in both its inspirations and its aspirations—inspired by the past but still forward-looking in its youth, optimism and energy, a proper ode to Chanel’s history and a vote of confidence in its future.