Chanel boots long held a special place in the Mademoiselle’s wardrobe. This couturier sought to impose a dress code filled with simplicity throughout her entire career. Within this sleek and inspired elegance, Coco Chanel thought of each curve, each stitch, each color for herself before imagining it on others. When Mademoiselle Chanel came back to centerstage in 1957, it was to give “the last point of elegance” to her look. The two-tone shoe was conceived to allow women to “travel around the world with four pairs of shoes.” In the couturier’s own words, something timeless is worth a thousand and one small extravagances.
Karl Lagerfeld brought back the legendary sling-back shoe last season; now he’s honoring another of Chanel’s favorite pieces: these two-tone boots. This shoe with an eternal aura has long been appearing in the Kaiser’s collections. Ever since he took over at the label in 1983, boots have reappeared as the key element in Coco’s wardrobe. And yet she herself never designed any for her collections – she preferred rather to wear them under any circumstance, from the horseraces to her weekends spent in Eaton Hall with the Duke of Westminster in the 20s. In 1958 she would pair her iconic tweed suit with a pair of boots for the first time, worn by Marie-HĂ©lène Arnaud, her favorite model. The boots were made by Raymond Massaro. To give them even more flexibility, he made them in an exclusive blueish-black velvet material, sometimes in a white and blue style. From this tasteful association, Coco’s pirouette sticks out as most noteworthy: “My ankles swell a bit and with boots, you can’t see a thing! One day we’ll make them for the collection,” she once confided.
The mustard allure of boots were already present in the Fall/Winter 1991 and 1996 ready-to-wear collections. Dressed up in rubber, in a rainbow version, they appeared for Fall/Winter 1994. In 2006, they became thigh boots. Laced up to the knee, embroidered, adorned with bows and ribbons, boots are today one of Chanel’s primary codes. Now for the Fall/Winter 2017 collection, Karl Lagerfeld has decided to honor Gabrielle Chanel’s daily go-to piece with a bit more urban flair. Two-tone, made in suede and satin, these highly desirable boots stop at the mid-calf. As refined as possible, beige, green, burgundy, midnight or royal blue, aubergine, red, and brick red accompany the curves of these shoes with a chic that’s been forgotten for too long. The height of elegance at 31 rue Cambon, Gabrielle Chanel’s signature is engraved within. This is a distinguished punctuation mark for a timeless collection.
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