Act II of the theatrical fashion extravaganzas also known as the Big Brand Cruise Shows, those amorphous in-between collections that have turned into traveling entertainment for Very Important Clients (and even more important social content), took place Wednesday evening in Southern California. Jonathan Anderson was unveiling his first Dior cruise show — and first coed one — at the recently reopened and reinvented Los Angeles County Museum of Art. If the Cannes Film Festival, now underway, has been somewhat lacking in big Hollywood names, the front row was not.
Miley Cyrus, LaKeith Stanfield, Anya Taylor-Joy and Al Pacino were there, ogling Anderson’s take on L.A.’s dream factory, complete with vintage cars, its own pseudo screenplay, an Ed Ruscha collaboration and a signal that this may be the beginning of a new relationship between Dior and the film world. (Anderson has, after all, been the costume designer of a number of movies, including “Challengers.”) I was watching from afar, but the drama was impossible to miss.
Scene 1: Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant walk into a bar.
The silver screen glamour of the first half of the 20th century was shorn of nostalgia and given a 21st-century update, with soignée dresses covered in miniature floral paillettes, and caught up on a hip or tied with a bow at the shoulder, and bar jackets transformed into gray overcoats bisected by the shadows of window blinds. The effect was elaborate and louche at the same time They were the sorts of looks that could start the night with a red carpet entrance at the Clooney Foundation for Justice and end it in some smoky lounge draped over a piano with a martini in hand. This prediction market has them coming soon to a premiere near you.
Scene 2: Denim couture is introduced. So is a new kind of message tee.
Ripped jeans are a fashion cliché at this point, but Anderson gave them a new twist by incorporating filament-thin silver chains amid the distressed cotton. Worn with elongated tweed jackets, the bottom shredded into fringe, and the Ruscha version of message tees (OK, not tees, shirts — always untucked and with a hand stuck casually in a pocket), they took high-low to a new level. Kind of like the pajama tops paired with leather trousers, which suggested nothing so much as a rock star on a milk run.
Scene 3: Accessories snag the big cameos.
Forget the Philip Treacy hats worn like Miss America crowns with the words “Dior” and “Star” on the top. Those are Pop Art click bait for the internet. More notable were the silk shoes adorned with pansies, the bejeweled ladybug bags and amber clutches, each accessory treated with the sort of attention to detail and handicraft that makes them seem precious — and impossible to copy. The single statement chain-mail earring just brushing one shoulder, on the other hand, is a styling idea anyone can steal.
Scene 4: And everyone gets their flowers.
Dior loved his garden, and while florals for spring (or cruise) are, yes, not exactly groundbreaking, they were so abundant here that they seemed on the verge of breaking the fourth wall. California poppies, wisteria, peonies, poppies or mega-mums were dripping from hips, draped like a lei around the neck, printed on crinkle-cotton shirtdresses and generally blooming into a garden of earthly delights.
Act I: April 28, 2026
Chanel Stages a Met Gala Curtain Raiser
The current hottest brand in the industry, according to the fashion search engine Lyst (which assesses brands according to multiple criteria including intent to buy, social conversation, speed of sell-through and cultural relevance), Chanel held its show in Biarritz, the French town where the house was founded in 1915. In the front row were the brand ambassadors ASAP Rocky and Nicole Kidman as well as Tilda Swinton, Sofia Coppola and Michaela Coel; watching onscreen was yours truly. Even through the glow of the computer, certain elements stood out.
The little black dress turned 100.
Coco Chanel is famous as the inventor of the Little Black Dress, which has its centenary this year. Little wonder that Matthieu Blazy, the newish artistic director, seized the moment to offer his spin, in both design and theory.
“It was like the first revenge dress,” Blazy said, calling in from Biarritz. But, for him, the revenge that a Chanel LBD represents is nothing so minor as revenge on a spurned lover; it is revenge on an entire social class. It represents, he said, “taking something from the working class and making all the aristocracy want it.” Little wonder he felt this might be the right moment to bring it back.
The shacket became the new bouclé.
If the LBD was Chanel’s version of workwear, Blazy has embraced his own. Since his second collection, he has treated the shacket, that modern sartorial portmanteau of a jacket and a shirt, as central to the new era of the brand. Along with tweed shackets and three-quarter-zip sweaters, he added a sequined “denim” Canadian tuxedo to the mix.
Logos were reinvented.
Coco Chanel was an early branding genius, one of the first designers to put her initials all over her work so that everyone who wore it advertised herself as part of Chanel’s club. But rather than simply fall into the trap of the double C, Blazy did something smarter: He took the interlocking curves of the letters and transformed them into a semi-baroque design element on suits, dresses and necklines, like a contemporary curlicue. The result felt less logomania, more manifest destiny.
Newsprint took on new meaning.
Physical newspapers may increasingly seem like a thing of the past, but fashion loves nothing more than a revival. So, in a nod to John Galliano’s controversial hobo Dior couture show from 2000 and to Coco herself — who reportedly said “I love to read newspapers, like a man” — Blazy took the idea of newsprint literally, whether in a ball gown or as the lining of a coat. He called those looks “fish and chips.”
There was (maybe) a Met Gala preview.
Ball gowns have not played much of a role in the four collections Mr. Blazy has shown since joining the house, but this time he dipped his toe into the … well, water, with a bias gold gown and two mermaid-themed frocks that seemed destined for next week’s Met Gala steps.
And there was a lot of joy.
Sea horses, sea urchins, coral, flowers of all kinds — they were literally woven into Blazy’s tweeds, which came in all colors and stripes, just like the models on his runway, including one who was six months pregnant (and had a pair of Chanel baby shoes dangling from her handbag). “We had such fun making the collection,” Blazy said. It showed.
Credit: Source link