Sandra‘s Closet

Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic, CHANEL cannot present its Cruise 2021 Métiers d’Art collection as planned on Tuesday December 1st, 2020 at the Château de Chenonceau (France), also known as the «Château des Dames» in the presence of guests. However, there will be screenings all around the globe for the brand’s fashion-loving clientele and everybody else who wants to tune in on December 3rd at 7pm Paris time. I am excited to attend the event at the CHANEL boutique in Zurich on Thursday evening to watch the show from there.

Since 2002, the Métiers d’Art collection, a Ready-to-Wear collection unique to CHANEL, has been paying tribute to the exceptional savoir-faire of the Maisons d’art and the fashion manufactories, CHANEL’s privileged partners. Uniting the creativity of the House and the virtuosity of the artisans – embroiderers, feathermakers, paruriers, pleaters, shoemakers, milliners and even glovemakers -, the CHANEL Métiers d’art collection contributes to the promoting of French fashion and luxury around the world.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © CHANEL / Jürgen Teller and © Sandra Bauknecht
#CHANELMetiersdArt

Fashion is a game. Presented during Louis Vuitton’s Cruise 2021 Collection by Artistic Director of Women’s Collections Nicolas Ghesquière, Game On sees creative freedom playing with canvas and lines mingling between the Monogram flowers and four suits of a card deck. French actor and Louis Vuitton ambassador Léa Seydoux embodies this new collection and jumps into a fantasy illusion where clubs bloom, spades pierce, diamonds sparkle, and the almighty heart reigns. Through a transversal collection, Game On plays its ace on the House’s most iconic pieces including leather goods, ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories.

Game On Canvas sees the Monogram reinterpreted on a black or white background with contrasting colours of bright blue and poppy red – a tiny heart replaces the House’s signature blossom. Here, the Petite Malle and Vanity PM in black and white make for an eye-catching statement. The geometric Square bag in white leather with a golden chain ups the ante.

The Dauphine, Speedy, Neverfull, and Keepall in Game On Monogram are adorned with enlarged suits of cards, giant hearts and blossoms in vivid red, blue, pink and purple, paired with golden hardware. A pair of Archlight trainers in white with leather trimmings sport a bright red heart, perfect to pair with the Paname bags duo. The queen of hearts, the Monogram Heart bag, stands true to its name as the first ever heart shaped bag. Raising the stakes, Capucines BB in white Taurillon leather and the Twist in white Epi leather complete this game of illusion.

My three favorites: Dauphine, Speedy and the Archlight trainers.

A royal flush, the collection expresses a particular art of living that keeps the trunk-making heritage alive. It’s the symbolism of a deck of cards, the traveller’s loyal companion, endless entertainment that cultivates togetherness. Game On is a lighthearted adventure in which all of the House’s spheres of expertise play a role, driven by passionate craftsmanship, their winning hand.

Already available in selected Louis Vuitton stores worldwide.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton

Yesterday evening, I was invited by Dior to an intimate ladies dinner at Hotel Widder in Zurich to watch live the Dior Cruise 2021 from Lecce. The way fashion shows are presented has changed due to  the current pandemic, but the excitement stays the same.

The collection was revealed with poetry and enchantment, behind closed doors in the emblematic Piazza del Duomo, in the heart of Lecce, Puglia, a region close to Maria Grazia Chiuri’s heart. Spanning fashion, traditional craftsmanship and committed contemporary art, the silhouettes appeared amid a spellbinding scenography illuminated by the mesmerizing glimmer of Luminarie, fanciful traditional light installations reinterpreted here by Marinella Senatore.

A summer landscape with Baroque architecture bathed in sunlight, Lecce is more than just a dream destination. For her cruise collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri pays homage to this land of the heart and its virtuoso craftsmanship. An enchanting ode to Italy – a country Christian Dior celebrated as early as 1947 – which has become a constant source of inspiration, a passionate creative history.

«During this period, I sought to give collective efforts a new dimension. Despite the disadvantages of distance, bringing a different perspective to our daily lives has given us strength and imagination,» says Maria Grazia Chiuri, who for this Cruise show has chosen to reconnect her creative passion with the region of Puglia, a place close to her heart. Texts by the anthropologist Ernesto De Martino dedicated to the region’s traditions – which have influenced authors including Germano Celant and Georges Didi-Huberman – led her to explore their roots. Puglia and its different energies, where magical beliefs such as Tarantism (disease or form of hysteria that appeared in Italy in the 15th to the 17th century and that was obscurely associated with the bite of the tarantula spider; victims seemingly were cured by frenzied dancing) live on, have become in this particular context a concrete form of utopia, a new reading of the world.

A true celebration of Puglia’s traditional arts and crafts, the Dior Cruise 2021 collection highlights the excellence of these priceless skills. The 90-look collection was proof how one can combine the bohemian and the haute. There were pinafore dresses, blanket-fringe skirts, and hand-knit sweaters, models wore handkerchiefs in their hair combined with flat boots. and of course there was another Book Tote. When you look closer, you will detect the embroideries and craftsmanship that went into every single outfit. The handmade natural leather corsets added this certain twist that I adore. A really beautiful collection that will hit the stores in October 2020.

LoL, Sandra

 

Photos: © Dior and © Sandra Bauknecht

Yesterday, CHANEL presented its Cruise 2021 collection «Balade en Méditerranée» (A trip around the Mediterranean) on Instagram instead of the island of Capri.

«Initially I had Capri in mind, where the show was supposed to take place, but didn’t happen in the end because of lockdown,» says Virginie Viard, «So we had to adapt: not only did we decide to use fabrics that we already had, but the collection, more generally, evolved towards a trip around the Mediterranean… The islands, the scent of the eucalyptus, the pink shades of the bougainvillea.»

And a free, laid-back allure inspired by the legendary actresses of the 1960s when they would holiday on the Italian and the French Riviera.

This collection was conceived to travel light with «a wardrobe that can be carried in a little suitcase on wheels, a shopper and an embroidered handbag», a few easy to wear, multipurpose items of clothing that all go together perfectly, and can even be transformed: long skirts become strapless dresses when pulled up, long jackets in black chiffon can be worn by day over a triangle bikini, or by night with an embroidered bandeau top and jeans, «and if worn over bare skin, it becomes a déshabillé.»

The dresses in fine transparent lamé are coupled with jackets that can be untied and slipped over a pair of crêpe shorts, while wraparound dresses and skirts liberate movement. Bougainvillea pink illuminates suits in leather as supple as a second skin, and in tweed that’s been left unlined for more fluidity. A collection of refined simplicity, to be discovered on chanel.com.

Despite the upheaval triggered by COVID-19, Bruno Pavlovsky, President of fashion at CHANEL, says the house is sticking with its strategy and will continue to show Cruise collections.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © CHANEL
#CHANELCruise

CHANEL will present its Cruise 2021 collection, created by Virginie Viard, Artistic Director of the Fashion collections, on Thursday May 7th, 2020, on the island of Capri in Italy.

From the 1920s, Gabrielle Chanel offered her clients lightweight and comfortable designs for yachting, coastal resorts, spa towns and other various sunny destinations such as the Riviera and the Lido beaches in Venice.

Capri’s seasonal CHANEL boutique will be open until October 20th 2019.

Since 2000 and under the impetus of Karl Lagerfeld, the CHANEL Cruise collection has become a much-anticipated rendezvous. CHANEL was the first House to introduce an actual runway show for its Cruise collection which invites us to travel around the world. It will be the first time the fashion house has presented a resort collection outside of Paris since 2016.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © CHANEL