What effect can re-reading today have old letters between friends in an age in which the exchange, friendly and cultural at the same time, took place in a way that today we can hardly imagine? If then this epistolary relationship is the one between Gabrielle Chanel, iconic stylist, and Jean Cocteau, legendary poet and playwright, who took place in an era of changes to which they themselves contributed profoundly, one can only be deeply, and irremediably, inspired. To have this privilege was Virginie Viard, who for the Cruise 2022 collection of Chanel has returned to immerse herself in the archives of the maison, bringing to light the Cocteau’s influences in Coco Chanel’s imagination, and viceversa. A highly anticipated digital presentation, which only a few friends and ambassadors were lucky enough to attend: only Charlotte Casiraghi, accompanied by her mother, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Vanessa Paradis, Alma Jodorowsky and Caroline de Maigret were present at the shooting of the show, in the splendid frame of Les Baux-de-Provence. But why in this village in the South of France?
1. From the heart of Paris to Provence
It all started at 31 rue Cambon, where the duo Inez and Vinoodh photographed six creations for the press presentation of the new collection and, above all, shot a teaser that anticipated the show: the setting is none other than Gabrielle’s apartment Chanel, recently refurbished, where the designer “housed her favorite bestiary, including lions, female sphinxes and deer”, and where she received her closest friends, including Jean Cocteau. The protagonist of this mini film is the model Lola Nicon, in a baroque space animated by memories, symbols and baroque objects that belonged to the designer, embodying an irreverent punk heroine. The actual show, on the other hand, was held at the Carrières de Lumières in Les Baux-de-Provence, where the film was shot Testament of Orpheus (1960) by Jean Cocteau, starring the director himself, Pablo Picasso and Yul Brynner.
2. White, black and surrealism
Coco Chanel and Jean Cocteau were two free spirits with their unique worlds, united in particular by the fascination for bestiaries: one of the suggestions that triggered the creative process of Virginie Viard for the Cruise 2021-22 collection is in fact the man with the black horse head from the movie Testament of Orpheus, also appeared in the teaser of Inez and Vinoodh. Or better still, the scene starring this surreal and mythological figure at the same time, against a background with very white walls: “the simplicity, precision and poetry of Cocteau’s film made me want to create a very clean collection with two tones, composed of bright white and deep black ». Nothing better to capture and reflect the light, so loved by both Cocteau and Chanel, but with the right distances from the – excessively – classicist aesthetic brought to the stage by the playwright.
3. The return of the 60s between glamor and punk
Moving away from Jean Cocteau’s sometimes obsessive love for mythology, Virginie Viard has developed a collection that, yes, pays homage to the decade that saw the dramatist’s rise to cinema, but taking inspiration from what happened above all in the streets from London. An echo to Cocteau’s modernity, yes, but revisited through the most influential and “breaking” current of the time: punk. Of course, there is no shortage of key pieces that are so tempting to the – always present – purists of the maison, from white tweed jackets dotted with precious brooches, to black coats with candid and rigid white collars, but the creative director wanted to focus above all on waterfalls of leather fringes, beads and sequins, t-shirts with the face of the model-symbol of the collection, Lola Nicon, immortalized as a rock star and dresses made with intertwined chiffon strips. Quotes to Jean Cocteau are very elegant, from the blue chosen for a sleeveless tweed dress, of the same vivid shade that we find in some of the artist’s ceramics, to the doves, a motif loved by the poet, sewn on deliberately crumpled sweaters and embroidered in a dress of high neck lace.
4. The epistolary homage of the stars close to the maison
In the evocative location of the Carrières de Lumières, letters sent by Jean Cocteau to Gabrielle Chanel were exhibited, as a tribute and testimony of their splendid friendship and respective artistic esteem. A medium, the epistolary one, also celebrated by some celebrities very close to Chanel: from Margot Robbie to Lily-Rose Depp, passing through Ellie Bamber and Nozomi Iijima.
THE LETTERS OF THE STARS TO CHANEL
5. A surprise finale with concert
The doves were not only woven into some of the clothing items in the Cruise 2021-22 collection: at the end of the show, they were released by the models against the backdrop of the white walls of the Carrières de Lumières: a gesture of good luck and return – hopefully , as soon as possible – to the freedom to travel and discover. As a surprise bonus, Chanel also broadcast a concert, recorded in the gardens of the nearby Baumanière hotel, with Sébastien Tellier in a duet with several guests, including singer Angèle but also Vanessa Paradis and Juliette Armanet.
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