Chanel Brings the Beach to the Runway

Fashion doesn’t have to mean anything. Sometimes we look too hard for it when it just isn’t there. Sometimes fashion is just pure fun and fantasy, and this is what Karl Lagerfeld served for his beach-themed spring 2019 collection for Chanel.

The set wizards at Chanel brought a boardwalk, lifeguards, and a whole actual ocean with waves lapping along a sandy shore inside the Grand Palais. How on earth they pulled this off I can hardly imagine but it must have been very expensive. But this is Chanel and this is luxury!

Models walked along the beach barefoot and then slipped into clear PVC double C logo slides as they walked up the stairs by the photo pit, to finish their runway walks along a boardwalk. Some models carried their shoes along the beach, while others were clipped to their bags.

The clothes were fun, just as a beach vacation in the South of France should be. There were tweeds of course, but they were less buttoned up, and more beach cover-up.

Lagerfeld leaned into a retro logo-mania, with brightly colored cardigans and ’80s prints.

He leaned into the late ’80s/early ’90s revival with blazers and bike shorts.

The beach theme carried over to accessories, with beach ball and terry cloth bags, as well as gaudy-in-a-good-way logo crystal earrings and belts.

The show also proposed a new way for wearing a bag: wear two at a time.

At the end, Karl Lagerfeld came out from a thatched roof beach hut to surveil his empire.

He seemed pleased.