The 10-year tyranny of the low-slung hipster-cut pants is over. Karl Lagerfeld has declared waistlines are back in his new spring couture collection for Chanel.
Skirts cut with their waistbands creeping up to the ribcage like toreador pants mean that we no longer have to refuse seconds at meal-times. The high waistline will not only hold us in but make us look taller and slimmer as well. This could be a bestseller season for Chanel.
The collection has a nautical theme, with the famous Chanel gold chain transformed into a gigantic rope that lined the long catwalk like a breakwater on a beach.
Snug-fitting suits and coatdresses in creamy white and navy with jaunty little sailor-style hats opened the show and were reminiscent of Coco Chanel's sporty Deauville collections of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lagerfeld's success with the label is due, in part, to the remarkable Chanel archive he can draw inspiration from. The memory of Chanel is glimpsed in each piece he designs, whether it be a puffy-sleeved organdie blouse with a slender, highwaisted, navy crepe evening skirt hinting at her work of the 1930s, or a boat-necked tunic top with pleated skirt from the 1960s.
Floppy bow necklines and pintucked fronts on jackets in the early part of the show recalled a signature look Lagerfeld reinvented in a modern context by tucking the jacket into the waistband to give it the look, ease and appeal of a shirt.
The pleated details were a key theme of Lagerfeld's collection, ranging from the swishing knifepleat skirts on the day suits to the soft, pleated tiers of his long evening skirts, worn with pintucked or pearl-embroidered blouses. They brought the clothes to life, suggesting the romance and femininity of an Edwardian lady.
Actress Renee Zellwegger, hot off the plane from Los Angeles wearing a cream Chanel suit that could have walked off the catwalk, had her first taste of Paris haute couture yesterday at the Christian Lacroix show. "I have come to look and learn, and was amazed at the gorgeous colours and workmanship that I have seen," she said after the show.
Lacroix's collection was inspired by the style of an eccentric traveller who collects her memories in the eclectic mix of shapes, embroideries and prints of the clothes that she wears.
Most remarkable were the skirts and dresses with intricately detailed Chinese embroideries.