Exuberant Couture Stages Edit
Chanel at the Grand Palais

Karl Lagerfeld needed a dramatic space to show his Chanel collection for the fall, so he chose the Grand Palais. The huge space made the enormous gathering of the fashion elite seem insignificant when compared to his runway showing.  The master showed suits, embroidery, chiffon, and evening wear.  Most were in the subdued colors that will be so fashionable this fall. Tweeds with belled skirts, bunchy cap sleeves and rolls of material at the waist or hemline were very striking.

When showing in the Grand Palais—a soaring dome of a space capable of dwarfing an enormous audience and miniaturizing any runway—Karl Lagerfeld had to exaggerate to make his theme carry. Thus, a 50-foot set was craned in to announce the season’s keynote: in this case, a vas,t multilevel stack of steel-gray tubes, suggesting organ pipes.

The video above shows the exuberant set design at the show.

Take a look at some more from the spring/summer 2009 Paris Couture week, followed by the previous Chanel show at the Grand Palais.

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