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t was on a larger-than-life voyage that Karl Lagerfeld invited his guests this Thursday, 3rd May 2018. Beneath the nave of the Grand Palais transformed into a cruise ship terminal, the La Pausa liner docked for the duration of a runway show. Majestic with its main bridge and two upper decks, it waits for the passengers to board before it’s anchors away on a trip to some Mediterranean port.
The atmosphere is relaxed and happy: with children's party shoes or strappy sneakers on their feet, the travellers are already sporting their big round sunglasses, white tights and berets in tweed and cotton, ready to travel comfortably and in style, just like Gabrielle Chanel. Their silhouette is a taste of holidays to come: short or long, it reveals the skin and a hint of a waist, swathed in bright whites, sun-gorged pastel hues, and dazzling pinks and blues. Prints of boats or shark's teeth, wave and porthole motifs, and aqua sequinned embroideries scintillating like the reflection of the sun on water, are like a call to the high seas. The tweeds and cotton poplins, the silk chiffons, the crêpes de Chine and georgette, the fishnet and the crochets, the PVC ennobled with feathers and braids… All define a welcome lightness, floaty yet warming beneath the balmy breezes.
Tweed dresses are narrow and ultra-short, flirting with the line of a tunic. The iconic jacket, fastened with La Pausa stamped buttons, becomes a double-breasted blazer-dress and is worn alone or with a pleated skirt in white jersey. Larger jackets hide tweed mini-skirts beneath them. The suit is reinvented: its jacket is short like a bolero and its skirt adopts a skater line. We see it in tweed or in satin embroidered with shell sequins. It also comes adorned with flat pleats and is worn with little skirts or loose-cut shorts. The dresses in tweed or in cotton poplin have an accentuated high waist and are enhanced with smocking or black leather. Crop tops in crêpe de Chine printed with CHANEL cruise liners and wind roses are coupled with fluid carrot-leg trousers. Others in pastel tweed are paired with Capri pants or high-waisted wide-cut trousers stitched with denim. Long lightweight coats in cotton are embroidered with escaping multicoloured threads, echoing the streamers thrown down to the dock at the moment of departure.
When not inspired by the traditional sailor tops, stripes plunge vertically over blouses and skirts in poplin embellished with round porthole-like patterns. We find them in pink and white over shirts and fluid trousers, worn with sweaters emblazoned with the ship's name, La Pausa. Berets, round sunglasses, precious cuffs, fingerless gloves, sautoirs and beaded belts accessorize these silhouettes with a burst of freshness.
Flat pleats, blazers, suits, soft trousers, stripes, little knits: the codes of the Cruise collection are all reunited and infused with details that change everything: a rounded and voluminous shoulder, a hem shortened to the extreme, sequin embroideries mixing cork, fabric, pearlised PVC, and tin can metal, as well as the most unexpected materials. PVC thus appears on dresses and tweed outfits. Bound by blue, red, pink and white feathers, it brings little strappy dresses to life. It also features on a suit woven from multicolour threads in the style of a tweed.
Evenings with dinner at the captain's table and nights made for dancing, are the perfect opportunity to step out in grand pleated dresses in crêpe de Chine or printed chiffon, and a long sheath dress buttoned all the way, with ruffles sharpened like watery blades. Crop tops and their godet skirts in black fishnet or navy and white crochet revisit the sailor spirit, while the skirts also lengthen into long dresses in black and white entirely sequinned stripes or in a speckled tweed. Backs are nude, on the dresses worked with tails draped from the bust to the lower back, and on the sheath dresses in mesh fishnet embellished with aqua, white and coral sequinned chevrons or completely sequinned and hand painted with waves. Short blouses with ruffled collars sit neatly above big skirts with flat pleats in printed chiffon. #CHANELCruise
By Fashion Editor Marcella Martinelli
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