Chanel Couture - Autumn/Winter 2015

There were two shows going on at Chanel couture offering. The first was a demonstration of fine jewellery of the kind only Karl Lagerfeld could pull off. The second was his couture collection.

In the centre of the room was placed the Chanel Casino where a very select group of gamblers made their bets on the roulette wheel and Blackjack. Lara Stone and Julianne Moore, Lil-Rose Depp and her mother Vanessa Paradis, Kristen Stewart and Geraldine Chaplin (a doppelganger for Chanel herself) sat in outfits specifically designed for their personalities and to show off the amazing Chanel diamonds as they played the tables. Around them patrolled an army of geometric slanting bob-haired models, their kabuki-style make-up and wigs making them an identikit crowd in contrast to the individual style of the gamblers.

This season’s couture offering majored in tailoring with the star pieces being 3D versions of the famous Chanel jacket and skirt. Light as balloons and standing away from the body, they looked as if they were created from the fabric of the future.

Back to the present and Lagerfeld followed with a collection of jackets and coats made from light wools with dramatic broad shoulders exaggerated by epaulettes, while collars were high and often doubled, standing away from the neck, their sleeves wide and cropped at the elbow.

Eveningwear was as one would expect: a delicious confection of sharp lines mixed with layered tulle and feathers. Hems slanted like the girls’ wigs, from back to front in an unusual take on asymmetry. And when the bride in the shape of Kendall Jenner arrived, she was wearing a double-breasted white satin trouser suit with a trailing tulle hem.