Chanel's Feminist Protest Explained

Being part of Karl Lagerfeld's  Chanel catwalk ¨protest¨ may have seemed like fun to onlookers, but one of the models involved - Gigi Hadid - said it wasn't as easy as it looked.

"Honestly it was such a surreal experience, it felt kind of out-of-body," Hadid said. "The crew said, 'Yes, it's a fake protest, but you need to go into this realising that you're on the world stage. Everyone talks about the Chanel show, everyone is going to see it and we're really setting a protest for you guys - for what Karl sees in all of the amazing women that he works with.' That really inspired me… Everyone was kind of shy and didn't want to go out there yelling and screaming. We had to do a four-hour rehearsal because no one would actually yell, but once they gave us the pep talk, we were all so into it."

Chanel: Fashion Uprising

Enjoyable as it may have been, the staged protest prompted many discussions about whether a fashion show is the appropriate place for a feminist march - with some even suggesting that it trivialises the cause. Lagerfeld, unsurprisingly, is unrepentant.

"My mother was very much a feminist and I thought it was something right for the moment," Lagerfeld told Fashionista. "I couldn't care less if people are for or against. It's my idea. I like the idea of feminism being something light-hearted, not a truck driver for the feminist movement."