Chanel Haute Couture – A Reinterpretation of Impressionism

In this year’s Haute Couture collection, Chanel is reflecting her beauty on paintings. Virginie Viard was strongly inspired by the impressionist painters such as Berthe Morisot and Manet. She explains: “It was when I rediscovered these portraits of Gabrielle Chanel dressed up in black or white 1880s-style dresses, that I immediately thought about tableaux. Works by Berthe Morisot, Marie Laurencin and Édouard Manet. There are impressionist-inspired dresses, skirts that look like paintings and a long white satin dress punctuated with black bows like Morisot’s…” Viard got inspiration from the aspect of colour palettes and patterns, and also the style of the painter herself, which creates a harmonic balance between fashion and fine art, thoroughly fascinating.

The Haute Couture – bursting with the dynamic of colours and fine art inspirations, took place at the Palais Galliera, City of Paris Fashion Museum – a veritable institution of art and fashion, which is a perfect spot for this collection. Based on the interest in the greyness of winter, Viard made this particular collection embroidered and full of warmth.

The strong influence of the beauty and worship of paintings are everywhere in this collection, as Viard said: “There are dresses embroidered with water lilies, a jacket in a black tweed crafted from feathers with red and pink flowers. 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.”

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Image Credit: Chanel