For the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Coco Chanel’s first boutique in Deauville, designer Karl Lagerfeld is signing off on an homage in the form of a short film, modestly “Once Upon A Time”.
Illustrating the love between the famed couturier/designer and Boy Capel, polo player who financed the Deauville boutique, this film retraces a small piece of history: that of the genesis of the Chanel empire. Keira Knightley, muse for the brand since 2007, will play the role of Gabrielle Chanel, accompanied by Clothilde Hesme in the role of her aunt Adrienne. Several of the Kaiser’s models and muses, like Stella Tennant, Tallulah Harlech, and Caroline de Maigret, were also chosen to play alongside them. A magnificent return to the past, this short film is a veritable aestheticized cinematographic homage.
Mademoiselle Chanel’s personality and style definitively left their mark on 20th century fashion, and several details, cuts, and materials have since become veritable icons for the brand, always reinterpreted in new ways. Goethe himself once said: “Make a better future with broadened elements of the past.” The hundredth birthday of the double-C brand could thus be the occasion to breathe new life into these legendary symbols. The camellia, the bicolor shoes, the quilted bag, the tweed suit, and diamond jewelry are all tried-and-true classics that prove the brand’s hegemony what with their mix of tradition and modernity. The new Cruise collection 2013-2014, set to launch May 9th in Singapore on site at Loewen Cluster on Dempsey Hill, will certainly bear witness to this as well.
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