Chanel stages wedding themed haute couture SS21 show at Paris’ Grand Palais

Most people planning a spring 2021 wedding will have been forced to cancel their plans, but not Chanel.

Today the brand unveiled a celebratory spring/summer 2021 Haute Couture collection via a runway show at the glass-domed nave of Paris’ Grand Palais.

The show took place in a flower-strewn round space, surrounded with chairs and flower arches, and was captured on video by Dutch photographer, filmmaker and graphic designer Anton Corbijn.

"I knew… that we would have to invent something else, so I came up with the idea of a small cortege that would come down the stairs of the Grand Palais and pass beneath arches of flowers. Like a family celebration, a wedding…” Chanel’s creative director Virginie Viard explained in the show notes.

Chanel had initially planned to hold two shows for 300 guests each at the cavernous venue, but, like the rest of Paris Couture Week, has pivoted in line with Covid restrictions.

Instead, the wedding guests numbered just a handful of the brand’s top ambassadors: Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Caroline de Maigret, Lily-Rose Depp and her mother, Vanessa Paradis, Charlotte Casiraghi, Joana Preiss, Izïa Higelin and Alma Jodorowsky; who each took their Camellia- strewn, socially distanced seats and looked on as Chanel, as always, created some mega magic.

As a remix of Be My Baby by The Ronettes started on the sound system, models wafted down the sweeping staircases of the Palais in a series of pastel-hued looks that conjured images of garden parties and summer celebrations.

There were wedding guest-ready drop waist organza gowns with waistcoat-like lapels in pale mint and peach and a pale pink flounced crepe georgette dress, styled with an entirely ruffled bolero perfect for those British weddings that come with an evening chill.

For guests that don’t really ‘do’ dresses there were sequinned waistcoats and sparkling boucle jackets with matching wide leg trousers – a nod to Coco Chanel’s appropriation of menswear in her designs.

Several of the models paired their pastel ensembles with matching bridesmaid-like flower crowns, while elsewhere the Mother of the Bride was well catered for with a good smattering of Chanel’s classic boucle twin set skirt suits – the iridescent silver number paired with sunshine yellow silk shirt to make a particularly dazzling option with a high risk of upstaging the bride.

More adventurous dressers might opt for the amazing A-line pastel flamenco ruffled maxi skirt, or indeed the black sequined micro mini with exploding black organza bustle – guaranteed to help you pull in the pews.

The coolest look by far had to be the penultimate black dress which, worn with big black sunglasses, came with a sheer black midriff complete with diamante midriff chain. Or perhaps the simple ivory silk shirt styled with a pufffball black organza skirt, simply for how in its half-doneness it resonated with the existential sartorial crisis most of us have faced this year.

“I'm always thinking about what women would like to have in their wardrobe today," continued Viard, who had truly created a celebratory ensemble for every taste.

The fairytale came to a climax with the arrival of the bride, who entered the space mounted on a white horse. Wearing a floor-length long-sleeved button front dress in ecru satin crêpe with a train, the bride looked as though she had emerged from a 1920s wedding album.

The dress had been sewn with strass and pearl butterflies by embroidery specialists Lesage, who are just one of the ‘Maisons d’Art’ with which Chanel works on every show. The talented artisans had been involved in every one of today’s looks, from the embroidered macramé of a long dress in pearl grey tulle created by the Montex Atelier to the delicate feathers that embellished the organza flounces of a little dress in black tweed, created by the House of Lemarié.

More than just a really pretty party, today’s show was a celebration of togetherness, something for which we are all so desperately longing right now. "I love big family reunions, when the generations all come together. It's so warm,” said Viard.

“There’s this spirit at Chanel today. Because Chanel is also like a family."