Dazzling, flamboyant, shimmering, the accessories in CHANEL’s Paris-New York 2018/19 Métiers d’art collection showcase the gold that Gabrielle Chanel so loved, while brilliantly reflecting a modern and exalted vision of Egypt, the reference behind this collection presented on December 4th 2018, in the hall of the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
THE BAGS
The CHANEL 11.12 and 2.55 bags are reinvented thanks to the exceptional savoir-faire of the Métiers d’art. Gold transcends the perfection of the iconic 11.12 bag’s shape, in a crocodile-style embossed leather.
The legendary 2.55 bag also rose to a creative challenge with geometric flat colours drawing a wide stripe or a pyramidal triangle on the flap of the bag. The golden crocodile-style embossed calfskin leather is inlaid on the quilted black lambskin, having been stitched from the underside.
The making of the iconic CHANEL bags follows a precise and immutable protocol, that requires more than 180 operations and just as many meticulous gestures in the Verneuil-en-Halatte ateliers.
THE SHOES
Boots, booties and sandals, the shoes in CHANEL’s Paris-New York 2018/19 Métiers d’art collection also revolve around the colour gold as a stylistic principal.
Two boot and bootie designs come in a crocodile-style embossed gold leather: this creative innovation allows for all sorts of stylistic audacities and breathes a very eighties modernity into the understated shape. The house of Massaro has developed four designs in lamé leather: two pairs of thigh boots and two sandal designs, flat or with a small heel. The thigh boots explore a graphic line with subtle codes: a slightly rounded knee and a black toe cap – a nod to the two-tone shoe so dear to Gabrielle Chanel. Their jewelled 10.5cm heels, made by the Houses of Desrues and Goossens, feature geometric shapes in enamel and multicoloured cabochons evoking the stones of ancient Egypt. As for the sandals, they boldly adopt an interlacing of fine gold straps around the instep and the ankle.
The accessories in the CHANEL Paris-New York 2018/19 Métiers d’art collection highlight the fruitful dialogue between CHANEL’s Métiers d’art, Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard in a most striking way: savoir-faire and innovation put to the service of creation.
