From sub-Saharan Africa to the North of England: after whisking the fashion crowd to Dakar last December, Chanel has revealed its next metiers d’art show will be staged in Manchester. The 2023/24 collection – a celebration of the savoir-faire of Chanel’s metiers d’art – will be unveiled on 7 December, the house confirmed today.
A specific venue for the show is yet to be revealed, but Chanel’s past destination spectaculars have seen guests watching from a pontoon moored on Shanghai’s Huangpu river, and the rococo salons of an 18th-century palace in Salzburg. In Senegal, Pharrell Williams and Naomi Campbell took their seats on the front row inside Dakar’s former Palais de Justice. Perhaps the most fitting venue for a star-studded spectacular from a heritage fashion house in Manchester would be its unofficial place of worship, Old Trafford?
As the birthplace of both rave culture and Britpop – not to mention the spiritual home of the WAG – Manchester has been influencing Britain’s style DNA for generations. More recently, designer Haider Ackermann (a Timothée Chalamet favourite) chose to unveil his collaboration with sports giant Fila not in his adopted home of Paris, but in a disused rail depot in Manchester. The city is also abuzz with the arrival of Factory International, a multi-million pound new arts destination that is currently home to the pioneering Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s (she of the spotty Louis Vuitton collab) biggest ever immersive environment.
The forthcoming influx of tweed, camellia flowers and double Cs seals it: Manchester is having a moment. Could the prospect of Chanel in the North tempt Oldham girl and Lagerfeld favourite Agyness Deyn out of runway retirement? More importantly, will famous friends of the house stick around to sample some traditional local fare? Princess Caroline of Monaco eating a barm cake is the front row moment no one saw coming.
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