Travel to the Palais Galliera, the City of Paris Fashion Museum and here we enter the painting that is Chanel's Fall-Winter 2021/22 Haute Couture presentation.

 

 

A symphony of violins echo throughout the courtyard, opening the show with a glistening tweed coat paired with a breathtaking feathered skirt. Cue in Chanel's signature tweed two piece ensembles then with an abrupt music change, we enter into a new world.

 

 

Voluminous tiered saloon style skirts all trimmed with feathers and high waisted Chanel tweed yokes, then come forth the pastel midriffs in broderie anglaise and girls gathered down drowning in quaint Chanel bows.

 

 

The show was one bursting with colour and texture, a collection themed around glimmering sequined tweeds, a collection to be reminiscent of an Impressionist painting, a show etched in different paint strokes.

"Because I love seeing colour in the greyness of winter...I really wanted a particularly colourful collection that was very embroidered, something warm," states Virginie Viard.

 

 

Chanel's Fall-Winter 2021/22 Haute Couture drew its inspiration from the art of painting, upon Virginie Viard rediscovery Gabrielle Chanel's portraits and the works of Berthe Morisot, Marie Laurencin and Édouard Manet. A collection inspired by Impressionist painters however all reimagined for the new - the collection further exploring expressionism in Virginie Viard's refreshingly new idea of the modern couture woman.

 

 

"There are dresses embroidered with water lilies, a jacket in a black tweed crafted from feathers with red and pink flowers," says Virginie Viard. "I was also thinking about English gardens. I like to mix a touch of England with a very French style. It's like blending the masculine and the feminine, which is what I’ve done with this collection too. That twist is very much a part of who I am."

 

 

The show slowly winds to a close to the resounding track of a cover to Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart, as the girls of Chanel Haute Couture and their braided Mohawks stage out for the final look.

Actress and Chanel ambassador Margaret Qualley is crowned the Chanel Haute Couture bride, like a painting in all white complete with a Chanel Pillbox hat and polkadot veil - ending the live show in true bridal fashion complete with its own Chanel bouquet toss.

 

 

View the full Chanel Fall-Winter 2021/22 Haute Couture show on chanel.com, with more news and show updates available throughout all official Chanel social media channels.