A Fashion Journal: Paris Fashion Week - AW14 Chanel
Just over a month ago AW14 Chanel was broadcast to the world in the most 'super' of ways. Yes, the 'super' refers to the supermarket stage they created which was a sight to be seen! Chanel is the one show that everyone wants to go to and I was one of the lucky people to receive an invite in the post. Typically their invites come in the most beautifully written envelopes so I was taken by surprise when I opened the ordinary looking envelope with a computer printed address. The invites always give a hint of whats to come and 'Chanel Shopping Center' on the front pretty much summed it up!
I arrived about an hour and a half early for the show at the Grand Palais and already the streets were an array of Chanel clothes and of course people head to toe in Chanel accessories. As you walked in you were greeted by stunning guys in supermarket outfits which looked more like lab coats. You walked under a giant entrance sign and then through the checkouts. As you can tell the themes of red, blue and yellow were used throughout the staging and I thought it worked really well. I was actually quite confused when I walked in to begin with because I was thinking ok... now where is the runway? It took me a couple of seconds to realise that EVERYTHING was the catwalk which let me into thinking two things. First, what a shame because the show wasn't a giant imposing space it normally is (although it was probably just as big as everything they've done before) and my second thought was I wonder what's going to happen. This was kinda daunting as I wanted to shoot the show and front row so I really had no idea where to start.
The space was filled with nearly everything you'd find in a Supermarket, everything apart from things such as a freezer section and it kinda felt out dated in the good sense. It started to look quite Stepford Wives which was an idea they clearly had but didn't push which is a good thing. It was an experience that was so interesting, and you constantly found new things and hidden Chanel logos on everything from eggs to brooms.
The best part? The fact nothing was really touched before the show. People viewed all the different elements but not much touching. Of course the trolleys around the place were just crying out to get a selfie with so they were actually interacted with! I will talk more about during the show in the post dedicated to that but I wanted to note that models interacted with the various props around the place. Once the show finished, people went crazy and started to rip open boxes to find things inside and try to smuggle things out. Others made baskets out of various buckets they found and started to shop for real. Once at the checkout people found out they couldn't buy anything, but they didn't go home empty handed (HELLO MAKEUP).
The funniest thing I saw was one woman eating the fruit then putting a HUGE bunch of garlic in her handbag... It really did descend into madness and I would have loved Karl to make a tally of how much was actually successfully stolen.
It looked like a zombie Apocalypse and I was kinda embarrassed by humankind...
Tags: chanel super market, chanel runway, chanel supermarket, chanel aw14 supermarket, chanel stage, chanel shopping trolly, paris fashion week chanel
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