“Chanel delves into founder's orphanage past in couture show - Yahoo Lifestyle” plus 3 more

JadeTotti Mart 20, 2021

“Chanel delves into founder's orphanage past in couture show - Yahoo Lifestyle” plus 3 more

Chanel delves into founder's orphanage past in couture show - Yahoo Lifestyle
Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber Model Pilgrim-Style Pumps at Chanel’s Couture Show - Yahoo Lifestyle
Pharrell Williams and Wife Helen Lasichanh Do His-and-Hers Dressing at Chanel’s Couture Show - Yahoo Lifestyle
Mere Mortals Can Now Book Tokyo's Most Exclusive One-Table Restaurant - Yahoo Lifestyle

Chanel delves into founder's orphanage past in couture show - Yahoo Lifestyle

Posted: 21 Jan 2020 06:55 AM PST

Paris Fashion Haute Couture S/S 2020 Armani Prive — A model wears a creation for the Armani Prive Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2020 fashion collection presented Tuesday Jan. 21, 2020 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

PARIS (AP) — A humble stone fountain, overgrown shrubs and flowers, and white sheets drying on a line met Pharrell Williams and other curious guests at the Chanel show inside the Grand Palais.

The set recreated the landscape house founder Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel viewed as a child after her mother died and her father sent her away to an abbey orphanage.

If such a lowly — and sad — setting seemed like an unusual choice to showcase high-priced and normally joyous couture, it was an intentional move by designer Virginie Viard to demonstrate how Chanel mixed high and low in her fashion.

Here are some highlights from the second day of Paris Fashion Week haute couture shows for spring-summer 2020.

CHANEL DELVES INTO FOUNDER'S ORPHANAGE CHILDHOOD

Chanel, Viard discovered, had been profoundly inspired in all her designs by the ancient Cistercian Abbey of Aubazine, in the French region of Corrèze — with its flowers, uniforms and stained-glass artistry.

The theme made for a more haunting collection than normal — a mood emphasized by loud, spooky music and models that slowly crisscrossed the courtyard like they were in a trance.

A take on a convent schoolgirl uniform opened the show as a signature Chanel tweed skirt-suit. It was cut sharply, with a round ecclesiastical white collar and baggy white preppy ankle socks. Mosaic patterns in panels evoking stained glass appeared on an equally strict jacket in pastel blue and sand. Apart from the occasional flash of color, most of the designs came in black and white.

"What interested me in this (abbey) was the paradox between the sophistication of haute couture and the simplicity of this place," Viard said. "The strict suits of the pupils rub shoulders with structured dresses of an ethereal finesse."

Viard has less humor and a stricter aesthetic take than the flamboyant Karl Lagerfeld, her predecessor who died last year. And this more austere theme gave the French designer a platform to design more naturally with her own voice.

GIVENCHY'S TIMELESSNESS

Musicians were suspended mid-air while seated on chairs attached to stone columns for Givenchy's historic Left Bank show venue.

They played dramatic classical music to accompany spring's equally dramatic couture — an accomplished series of varied designs that made it seem as if designer Clare Waight Keller can't put a foot wrong.

The clothes spoke for themselves, without the need for cultural references, through deft plays of proportion.

A long charcoal tuxedo coat had a magnificent shape, with a truncated full skirt billowing out unexpectedly at knee level in a clever reinterpretation of a known silhouette.

Vividly colored silk ruffles didn't just appear as details on gowns, but Keller used them to construct the structure and silhouette of trapeze-shaped garments that teemed like dense, oversize petals.

ALEXIS MABILLE 'TEESES' HIS GUESTS

Burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese opened the show for Alexis Mabille in a black tuxedo with sensual decollete that dripped down the leg with brooding black sequins.

The French couturier this season used Von Teese — and her styles — as the touchstone for a collection that explored corsetry, lingerie and seductive undressing.

A white satin bustier was covered gently by a see-through lace chemise. A white floor-length gown had a bold dropped shoulder in which the segments seemed to fall off the bust, as if the model were in the process of undressing.

Mabille also used his signature bow theme to produce a gargantuan abstract neck bow whose proportions drowned the model. It was highly inventive.

ARMANI LOOKS TO COLOR, ASIA

The iconic Place Vendome square was the enviable location for Italian design legend Giorgio Armani's latest display.

For Armani, couture is about celebrities and razzmatazz, and Tuesday was no exception as actresses Reese Witherspoon and Juliette Binoche held court.

The Asian-themed designs, though beautifully constructed, were secondary to that, sadly, and tended toward the repetitive.

Statement color — sometimes overly bold — also defined the spring aesthetic. But the exhaustive show held no surprises.

A structured white silk tuxedo in a crossover design opened the show. The model wore a stiff black wig, a styling feature that appeared throughout the show.

The signature tuxedo led to a terracotta obi belt on hot pink loose pants and a V-neck tuxedo in imperial blue.

Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber Model Pilgrim-Style Pumps at Chanel’s Couture Show - Yahoo Lifestyle

Posted: 21 Jan 2020 06:29 AM PST

Click here to read the full article.

Yesterday, Dior Couture's The Female Divine celebrated women as a powerful pagan force. Today, Chanel's Virginie Viard employed the opposite approach.

The Chanel spring '20 couture collection showcased by Gigi Hadid, Kaia Gerber and friends was a quasi-puritanical affair — and the staging recalled the cloisters of an abbey.

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Hadid wore a severe, buttoned-to-the-neck affair with oversize rounded collar and matching cuffs — ascetic if you ignored the fact it was slit half way up the thigh.

Meanwhile Kaia Gerber's look resembled a first communion gown of white tulle overlaid with lace broderie. But while the bustier cut might have been a touch risqué for the altar, the shoulders were veiled in gauzy black.

There's always been a tension between asceticism and sex, austerity and release, what is concealed versus what is revealed.

Low heeled pilgrim style pumps came teamed with white ankle socks and white stockings. Elsewhere, there were white shoe boots with contrast black laces and black toe-caps.

Collection inspiration and setting alike drew on the early life of house founder Gabrielle Chanel. She spent her formative years in an orphanage at the Cistercian Abbey of Aubazine in central France and the nave of Paris' Grand Palais where the show took place, was transformed into the Abbey's cloister garden.

Unlike Dior, Chanel has never been an "activist" house ,and Marie Grazia Chiuri and Virginie Viard are different women with different aesthetics.

However, for the first time, both of these major Paris couture houses now have women at the helm at the same time. Which is probably not such a bad thing.

Click through the gallery to see all the looks in Chanel's spring '20 couture collection.

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Pharrell Williams and Wife Helen Lasichanh Do His-and-Hers Dressing at Chanel’s Couture Show - Yahoo Lifestyle

Posted: 21 Jan 2020 06:13 AM PST

Click here to read the full article.

It may be awards season, but some stylish stars ditched the entertainment scene for the haute couture shows in Paris. Celebrities came out in full force to Chanel's garden-inspired spring '20 couture show, held today in the City of Lights.

Chanel collaborator Pharrell Williams held court on the front row alongside wife Helen Lasichanh. Williams wore a sporty look in a pink blazer, cropped khaki pants and Adidas skate sneakers. A "Human Made" hat completed the ensemble.

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Meanwhile, Lasichanh wore shades of black-and-white. She wore a houndstooth coat over a gray knee-length dress. The look was finished off by pointed-toe, bow-adorned heels with a cap toe.

Caroline de Maigret went for a black-and-white ensemble as well. The model sported a white and black top, black trousers and pointed, bow-adorned footwear.

Elsewhere, Ellie Bamber wore a long patterned coat with buttons going up the middle. Pointed-toe white boots with a high heel capped off the actress' outfit.

Chanel's show also featured star power on the runway in the form of Kaia Gerber and Gigi Hadid.

Gerber trotted down the runway in a frilly white tea-length dress with sheer black accents at the sleeves. The supermodel wore almond-toe black block heels on her feet.

Meanwhile, Hadid sported a black dress with white trim and a thigh-high slit; almond-toe loafers accented the look.

Click through the gallery to see more of the stars on the front row at Chanel spring '20 couture.

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Mere Mortals Can Now Book Tokyo's Most Exclusive One-Table Restaurant - Yahoo Lifestyle

Posted: 21 Jan 2020 06:43 AM PST

For the last five years, Japanese chef Natsuko Shoji has operated one of Tokyo's most difficult-to-book restaurants, alongside a thriving luxury cake business. On December 10, she relocated her pocket-sized, single-table Shibuya eatery and pastry shop, été, to a new home one subway stop away, and along with the shift to more spacious digs, she's made the eatery and cake component totally open to the public.

Shoji previously only accepted reservations and cake orders from friends, and friends of friends. Now, to get in or try her famous mango rose cake, simply send an email.

"I wanted to have a bigger place, so more people can experience my food," said Shoji, who roughly doubled the size of her original restaurant, which now encompasses just under 400 square feet. Along with more wiggle room, Shoji added two dining room seats, which means that été can now accommodate up to six guests per meal.

Offering that one-table dining room equipped with a sleek black zebra marble table and modern black leather chairs, the second half of the new été is Shoji's cake lab. In the past, Shoji built her confections in a private sliver of a kitchen, but the expanded space offered her enough room to create what she describes as a shokunin—or craftsman's—studio where customers can watch her decorate cakes.

Over the last half decade, Shoji has made a splash with her grand cakes garnished with Japan's most prized fruit—from Nagano grapes to Miyazaki mangos—inspired by iconic designs from various fashion houses like Chloe and Chanel. And while Shoji continues to evolve her sweets, revealing new seasonal iterations topped with chestnut and cherry, her most famous cake remains the one crowned with mango.

Built from a pâte sablée base, topped with vanilla bean custard cream, Shoji decorates each cake with slices of either Thai, Mexican, Australian, or Japanese mangoes—depending on the season—with slices of the fruit formed into roses. Unlike her strawberry cake that resembles Louis Vuitton's Damier print, or Shoji's peach number that's inspired by her mother's love for Chanel's Matelassé bags and their diamond-shaped stitching—Shoji's rose cake is the only one that's not fashion-forward.

And as of last month, it's not necessary to be David Beckham or René Redzepi to score a taste. But, do note that cake prices range from $150 to $2,000 depending on size and type of fruit.

At only 30 years old, Shoji has endured a quick and furious start in Japan's largely male-dominated culinary scene. After high school, Shoji earned an entry-level position at Tokyo's lauded, two-Michelin-starred French-Japanese tasting menu counter Florilège, and within three years chef Hiroyasu Kawate had promoted her to sous chef. She opened été in 2014.

Five years later and Shoji was ready to upgrade. While the old été was equipped with a minimalist dining room devoid of any bells and whistles, she designed her new spot with "luxurious materials" like "fine wood," says the chef, in addition to a glassed-in fireplace.

"I love fire because fire moves differently every time, much like cooking," said Shoji. "And we, chefs, use fire."

Most importantly, though, Shoji says that she wants her "customers to feel comfortable." Floor-to-ceiling windows allow abundant natural light, while offering guests a look at été's plant and flower garden.

Depending on the season in which one dines, expect to spend roughly $360 (inclusive of tax and tip) per person for a 10-course meal, both lunch and dinner. Shoji's French technique shines in dishes like her signature sanma roll, a seasonal Japanese fish rolled into what looks like a tostada, garnished with pomelo salsa, and a matsutake mushroom soup with steaked hairt crab and deep-fried scale-on amadai (tilefish).