Shoulder season
Fasten your seat belts. Captain Karl is primed for takeoff.
Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s rock star of a designer, helmed a fashion spectacular Friday night at the Santa Monica Airport, turning the cavernous Hangar:8 into a jet-setter’s fantasy for the world premiere of his cruise collection.
The vast space was transformed into a futuristic, blinding-white terminal lounge, replete with arrival monitors and monotone voice intoning, “Live from Paris: Chanel Line No. 5. Please be careful when opening the overhead compartment. Some quilted bags may fall out.”
In a month of fashion parties, it was the hottest ticket, attracting a 600-guest celebrity pileup, including Demi Moore, Victoria Beckham, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba, Lily Allen, Eva Mendes, Camilla Belle, Dita Von Teese and Claudia Schiffer -- plus a legion of international fashion editors, and Chanel face Diane Kruger, just in from Cannes, and stylist Patricia Fields, in from New York.
As the glittery crowd settled in, Champagne in hand, two Challenger 601 jets roared into view of the runway. Make that a conveyer walkway, whereupon one uber model after another descended from the planes’ staircases before stepping onto the people movers and sailing by the crowd.
“Traveling today is such a nightmare,” Lagerfeld groused during model fittings the day before the show. “I wanted to have the fantasy that it could still be a pleasure, something divine.”
He decided on Los Angeles as a venue, and inspiration for the collection, instead of the house’s hometown of Paris, or even New York, where he showed the cruise line a year ago, because “everybody already does those cities.”
Cruise collections typically don’t receive this kind of fanfare, anywhere. Wedged in between the larger spring and fall collections, the cruise season, also known as resort, has taken on greater significance in recent years as retailers have begun pushing for a faster turnaround of new merchandise. Most brands have doubled their cruise offerings, and they have seen sales follow accordingly. Chanel and Dior made them more of a fashion event last year, when they opted to show cruise in New York over Paris (and Dior showed in New York again last week).
Lagerfeld readily admits that the idea of L.A. -- more than L.A. itself -- actually inspired his work. And the 60-some looks shown Friday night conjured his California dreams, zigzagging from the Venice Beach boardwalk to poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
The floor-length his and hers bathrobes sparkling in black sequins would be right at home at that hotel, while a group of black quilted swimsuits and shifts decorated with jagged strips of pinky nude netting and fluttering paillettes suggested an earthquake fault line.
There were dresses for all those red carpet needs, of course. But these were youthful party frocks referencing just enough of the Old Hollywood glamour that front-row starlets pine for nowadays. A simple navy charmeuse gown with a couple of skirted tiers was effortlessly chic. So too were a pretty ivory pleated sheath that dropped right above the knee and a series of tangy coral party dresses and glossy coral pumps.
There were candy-color-blocked crewneck sweaters, bitty denim shorts and high-top sneakers with polyurethane wheels worthy of Rollergirl, and very short khaki ribbed sweater dresses shown with open-toe flannel boots that L.A. women could live in.
In fact, the spectacular production aside, not all the clothes measured up to the designer’s capacity. If local girls want faded wide-leg trouser jeans, star-shaped metal barrettes and railroad-striped cargo shorts, they know where to get them for cheap along Melrose Avenue. More than a few guests looked mystified, including Ashley Olsen, who scrunched her tiny nose at sister Mary-Kate and their stylist, Estee Stanley.
But one glance around the hangar and it was obvious that Chanel was still cool. And Lagerfeld, now in his 25th year as design director, has kept it current even while fans insist on certain staples from the house that Coco built -- the boucle tweed suits, the contrast-trimmed cardigans and the little black dresses.
Proof was in the wardrobe choices that Brit pop star Allen and other younger guests made for the show and for the previous night’s Chanel dinner at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills. “I love the classics,” Allen said of her black-and-white tweeds.
On Friday, Lohan wore a black tulle Chanel mini. “This was long when I got it today,” she said. “But I really wanted it short. So we lopped it all off just a few hours before I got here! It’s cuter, right?”
In a simple black skirt and a high-neck sheer ivory blouse, Eva Mendes purred: “I look so prim, but I’m naughty on the inside.”
She could’ve been describing her host. Lagerfeld relishes a bit of humor in his work. In a little jab to his host city, he spelled out “No Smoking” in red sequins on the back of a white blouse, and in a nod to those who treat their pooches as accessories, a model dragged one of the iconic quilted bags on a dog leash.
“At least you don’t have to clean up after it,” laughed Von Teese.
