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Chanel Fall 2015 Ready to Wear
This season, a French bistro with classically dressed Chanel Models, was the perfect set for Karl Lagerfeld’s new accessory collection, in Brasserie Gabrielle. Naming them the “new bourgeoisies” and outfitted them in looks that reference house icons, updated for the modern Chanel woman. As you might expect, tweed featured prominently in fluid skirts and precisely buttoned coat dresses, updated for the contemporary customer when combined with silk, vinyl, mousseline and lace.

Tie-necked blouses tucked into lace skirts and matching suits made for the perfect café numbers. Anna Ewers was particularly chic in an embellished hooded jacket layered over an easy crewneck and pencil skirt: the kind of look that works now and for years to come.

As a show-goer accessorized with a Lait de Chanel milk carton minaudiere reminded us, each of Lagerfeld’s collections comes with a peppering of playful handbags. Among this season’s was a classic quilted carryall complete with a leather café menu stuffed inside and a clutch constructed from two ‘porcelain’ dishes. Elsewhere, some of the many eye-catching bags came in jeweled mosaic and two-tone varieties. This season’s biggest handbag push, however, is the Girl Chanel bag: what looks like a conventional Chanel jacket fashioned into a leather hobo.

Ninety-three women’s looks, 20 bag shapes, and just one style of shoe. In all his seasons as creative director of Chanel, the Kaiser has never shown just one shoe silhouette in a runway show. But if there was ever a season to do it, it was this one, where Lagerfeld explored the essence of Parisian culture in all its depths.

There were flaneurs, café doyennes, and cool girls of the Marais, all united by Mademoiselle Coco’s favorite shoe shape: the square-heeled, cap-toe slingback in beige and black. “It’s become the most modern of shoes and makes beautiful legs,” Karl Lagerfeld said in his show notes.

Though this brasserie may not have been destined for a night out, they still knew how to pile on the jewelry. Strands of pearls mixed with fabulous gold coin belts, all emblems of Lagerfeld’s “new bourgeoisies.”