In periods of great change, sometimes the only way to ground yourself is to return to your roots. And so, while the fashion world waits with bated breath for news of Chanel’s next creative director, in the meantime, the House is looking to the past for inspiration.

The starting point for 24/25 Métiers d’art collection was an antique Coromandel screen which hung in Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment at rue 31, Cambon, in Paris. The piece itself depicts a scene from The West Lake in Hangzhou, China – the very location where this latest collection was unveiled. 

This setting necessitated a new design vocabulary for the House; one that merged Chanel’s signature refined silhouettes with the allure of the Chinese landscape. As night fell over the historic city, this vocabulary took shape, with models emerging at the lake in a collection that expertly married the past with the present. 

Enigma and allure took centre stage via long coats in signature tweed – some embroidered with barely-discernible flowers – shrouding their wearers in a sense of mystique. Next, a line of shorter duffle coats and oversized jackets were presented, many embellished with purposely undone stitches – a technique known as ‘frogging.’ With each step, the silk lining hidden underneath this exterior peered through, tied together by silk pockets, pagoda sleeves, and mandarin collars, all radiating with gentle luminescence. 

There was also romance in abundance, communicated via meticulous pleating and embroidery. Merging the storied histories of Chanel and China, and directly recalling the beauty of Gabrielle Chanel’s screen, were floral camellia and lotus motifs running the length of a long, ruffled dress. Similarly, hues of jade green, soft pink, and sky blue evoked the colours of the screen's lacquer, while faded blue jeans recalled the gentle ripple of the lake’s surface. 

Nodding to the physical journey from Paris to China were details like graphic pockets imbued on bags and jackets alike, each one suggesting, as the show notes described, “letter-writing thanks to their envelope-like form.” Of course, the collection also reflected the theme of travel in a practical sense, with travel bags and cases, Bermuda shorts and cotton trousers taking centre stage. Footwear followed suit, with slouchy suede boots and riding styles a favourite to emerge from the collection — and two styles we will surely be coveting next winter.