No one can deny Lagerfeld's genius at reinventing Chanel suits-and Chanel's style aesthetic over & over, season after season. Taking tartans last season in his Pre-Fall Métiers d'Art staged in Edinburgh at Linlithgow Castle -putting his Chanel wit to it-and this week he fashioned lederhosen & the dirndl into Chanel at the Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg (familiar to The Sound of Music aficionados).
As a silken thread-or in this case-wool, to his full blown Austrian fantasy, Madame Chanel was inspired by the jacket worn by a Schloss Leopoldskron lift operator to create her signature little black jacket.
all her photographs are at Vogue.com here
There are gorgeous photographs & first hand reviews on all the websites-Vogue , style.com, etc. etc., and this collection is indeed gorgeous.
What strikes me-it's so identifiable, and that- in an age of fashion's experimentation with digital printing (often more misses than hits), Lagerfeld brings a reality to his Austrian Fantasy. Traditional clothes with beautiful details-feathers, embroidery, lace-all look fresh-and beautiful, a word often applied to clothes, yet sadly lacking in those seen today.
The Collection is all "gift wrapped." Lagerfeld's way of getting the full breadth of his collection across-a film, a setting, a stage, a story. While his short film featuring Cara Delevingne didn't quite work, Delevinge is a star. As Sisi, Austria's style Queen c. 1860, Delevingne waltzes around in a Sisi crinoline dress that echos the empress's famous Winterhalter portraits.
SISI
Empress Elisabeth of Austria, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1865
found at Mademoiselle Delevingne's instagram account
Whatever your penchant for fashion, this little treasure (the ear muff) -practical, and so so whimsical, encapsulates Karl Lagerfeld's magical agility in putting one prettily shod foot into a Winterhalter portrait past-and the other squarely in the modern day world of instagram future:
I can't think of a better way to celebrate (other than ordering one of these jackets) than watching some Movies that will whisk you away to Austria this weekend:
Visconti's LUDWIG, with Romy Schneider as SISI, 1972.
or Ernst Marischka's SISI, 1955, again with Romy Schneider as SISI.
& then there is always The Sound of Music, 1965, or Heidi, 1968.
In all these movies there are shades of Chanel's Austria- loden, military stripes, lace, and braids-but no black leather anywhere in sight.
It's the jeweled black leather in this collection along with its feathered fedoras, plaited ear muffs, and thigh high suede boots that make Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel Métiers d'Art Collection a costume drama all its own.
I'd star in any of them.
How beautiful...the feathers,the ruffles and the hair on Cara...a Renoir painting that moves! I wish Koco Lagerfeld would've asked me...the Venetian Room at Schloss Leopoldskron was rebuilt in Studio for the Marionette and Ballroom scenes in The Sound of Music, and I have the 18thC Venetian chairs and their copies used on film sold by 20thC Fox Studios long ago. They oddly surround a Rococo gilt carved dining table with original Gilt Mirror top ala Jansen in my library...would've been historic too see the chairs used for a Chanel production in a home restored by Max Reinhardt, who fled Nazi Austria to America...of course, he was a major Theatrical Producer...like Koco Lagerfeld!
ReplyDeleteI love hearing about your home, and the provenance of pieces you've collected. Always a treat for me! I have wondered how your Mrs Mellon quest turn out...pgt
DeleteSuccessful...Verdura and a tole marbleized bucket/wastebasket...one of a pair I'm splitting with my NYC twin...Sister Mary Spends Some! A joyous auction for me, for naysayers, a NYC dealer most esteemed by some, were deeming this style, a style I love, dead in the water days before the ivory gavel went down. In the end, I am glad that panache won over...chipped Nymphenburg porcelain and painted bergeres and all!
DeleteAbsolutely heard that comment. I have to wonder "what DO people want?" and in full agreement-that the IDEA of what is sophisticated is completely a false sense of taste! Verdura how perfect. There has to be a book in the future "The Swan" dying for it!
DeleteNOTHING SHOULD BE NOTICED...Mrs. Mellon quote! I agree...only friends and family should be in on the fun, your included...a book, well...put it this way, when I was a child, The Nuns who taught me always mentioned that we each have a gift from Heaven. Oh how I prayed that it would reveal itself....was it Beauty? Success? Fame? No...its a commodity so RARE in today's World of Look at Me - the Gift of Privacy! So as Mrs. Mellon whispered for almost 105 years...NOTHING SHOULD BE NOTICED...it just is. By the way, Marina Rust was the under bidder for the pair of beautiful marbelized tole buckets ...aside from elegant are sweet and VERY useful - I plan too use mine as a wastebasket...unless a Vladimir Kanevsky topiary of Camellias rings the gate!
DeleteI have never not loved what Karl Lagerfeld has done, but this collection takes a special place in my heart. Hailing from Salzburg I know much about Schloss Leopoldskron and did a blog story about its history http://www.adeenidesigngroup.com/blog/a-showcase-a-princess-and-spy-and-a-palace/ a while back. But I did not know about the origin of the little black Chanel jacket. Thank you for enlightening me. What a beautiful collection and beautiful inspiration!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Claudia
Claudia, I look forward to reading! KL always has many links (just like those Chanel bracelets, and chains) and always the Charm to create magic. pgt
DeleteI hope you will enjoy, the Schloss has an interesting history. Links and links and links. ")
DeleteLove those ear muffs: Princess Leia meets Sissi meets Coco Chanel! :)
ReplyDeleteI just watched Ludwig for the first time. Quite a dark film, but the scenes in which Helmut Berger and Romy Schneider appear together are wonderful.
Ludwig is just brilliant,, as is all of Visconti's work. Romy is exquisite as Sisi in both films. pgt
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