ALL DOLLED UP
The Chanel Spring 2016 couture show was formally rigorous: a parade of 120 suits and gowns executed in muted gold tones with jewel-like embellishments. The outfits were unified in their quiet opulence, and in their allegiance to the classic Chanel silhouette: a slim bottom with a top cut away at the neck and the waist. The models sported identical low rolled buns, high curved-heel wedges, and Cleopatra eyeliner, a look that was part Dovima and part Princess Leia.
But the fashion was upstaged by the scenery. The show’s stated theme was ecology and it was presented inside the Gran Palais on a set with lawns, trees, a three-story wood cabana, and blank blue backdrops standing for cloudless sky. The cabana’s unadorned wood slat construction felt vaguely “ecological” and very, very modern. Its tidy construction sat in perfect contrast to the majestic arching steel ribs of the building above.
Models emerged from the cabana one by one and circled the lawn in a stoned robotic shuffle. The fringes, beading and brooches on their dresses bobbed like wings and antennae. Mica Arganaraz paraded solo, at the end, in a fitted bridal gown and hoodie encrusted with white beads. She skimmed the walkways, slowed by the the heavy train of the dress, like a swan.
For the finale all sixty models gathered inside the cabana as its front panels folded and flipped open,
simultaneously, slowly, like so many suburban garage doors. The
spectacular doll-house view revealed all the young women in their evening
clothes, at once. As they searched the crowd blankly and accepted the applause they looked less like dolls, or like young women, than like the most exquisite, exotic animals.