“The New York subway belongs to all. Everyone uses it: there are students and gamechangers; statesmen and teenagers. It is a place full of enigmatic yet wonderful encounters, a clash of pop archetypes, where everyone has somewhere to go and each is unique in what they wear. Like in the movies, they are the heroes of their own stories.” — Matthieu Blazy
The New York City subway is the great leveller; all human life is here. Constantly in flux, always becoming but never being, the subway is a microcosm of New York and a metaphor for fashion itself. There is always drama around every corner and a fascination for who you might meet. Here it is Chanel’s “sub(way)-culture,” where the ordinary becomes the extraordinary with the aid of the Maisons d’art. It also marks the debut Métiers d’art collection for Matthieu Blazy as Artistic Director of Fashion Activities.
Cinematic in its scope, the collection features a joyful cavalcade of personalities. There are socialites and superheroes, teens and olds, working girls and showgirls, the ladies who lunch and mothers on the go, each seen through a filmic lens — including Coco Chanel herself. In short, all the glitter and grit of the Big Apple, both in reality and in the imagination.
Shifting through space and time, from the 1920s to the 2020s, from Art Deco extravagances to a new silken lounge reality, a conflation of periods and personas tells a non-linear tale with the crafts of the Métiers d’art at its heart. Playful and chic, pragmatic and eccentric, a love story between Paris and New York unfolds — one of the exceptional savoir-faire of the Maisons d’art of le19M united with the pow! of pop impact. Each piece is a love letter to the intensity and emotion of exceptional craftsmanship.
In this amalgam of elevated craft and pop culture, an elegantly witty high style occurs. “Lingerie denim” is combined with complex embroideries, evoking a new kind of western wear; an archive Art Deco dress is reconfigured and embroidered by Lesage with fringed feather work by Lemarié — this new-school flapper chooses to wear hers with illusion chinos. The motif of the men’s shirt is once more revisited and weighted with a Chanel chain; this time lumberjack flannel is evoked in a sumptuous wool boucle tweed. Playful mutations abound, as do hidden personal pleasures for the wearer.
Minaudières have hidden meanings — that oyster has a pearl inside — as well as more obvious mischievous intent in the shape of enamelled monkey nuts and apples, the tourist trinket exalted. They join a dazzling array of jewellery, from ice-cube glass cabochons to deco hummingbirds, crafted by the goldsmiths of Goossens. A multiplicity of silk linings from hand-painted designs feature motifs of the city, even Coco Chanel walking her dog against the backdrop of the famous New York skyline.
The distinctive neighbourhood figures, the idea of the “urban jungle,” and the domestic, mystical, and mythical animals of the city merge. Is that a cat lady or a cat woman? Whichever she is, she is dressed in an elegant slubbed leopard tweed, specially commissioned and handwoven from Lesage. Occasionally, she is seen wearing a leopard fascinator from the milliners of Maison Michel. Who is that discreetly chic woman in the short, sharp black Chanel suit? She carries a classic black leather flap bag with golden scales inlaid, giving the illusion of a gilded alligator. Who is wearing a hand-painted leopard-patterned tulip skirt? The fringing alone on each petal took the artisans several days to craft. And over there, who is that woman in the bias-cut 1930s slip? Its embroidery — a multitude of shimmering fish, an Art Deco motif — layered yet lithe, was achieved by the artisans at Atelier Montex. Meanwhile, the hand-crafted classic slingbacks of Massaro anchor many looks, in traditional delicate kidskin — the design of Coco Chanel herself — or in contemporary shaved-shearling spotted animal print.
Initially inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s sojourns in New York City in 1931, on her way to and from Hollywood, Matthieu Blazy runs with this cinematic association for the collection. Originally, movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn’s uptown fashion aims were the impetus for this filmic connection with Chanel. Yet it was in downtown NYC rather than Hollywood that Gabrielle Chanel regained her confidence in Chanel’s democratic, global appeal. Just before her return to Paris, she discovered those downtown who had adopted the Chanel style in their own way. She found this pop celebration of her clothing to be the sincerest form of flattery. Gabrielle Chanel returned to Europe renewed — one of the many reasons that Chanel ❤ New York.
