The Chanel cruise 2024/25 show was held on a rooftop, but that did not mean there was attempt to elevate the clothes too

“Sweatpants are a sign of defeat,” Karl Lagerfeld famously said in 2013, when Chanel was synonymous with the Kaiser. What would he have thought of hoodies? We don’t think Virginie Viard would care, which may explain why she included hooded tops—not one, but more than half a dozen of them—in her latest collection. Her fans believe they were added to her usual gallimaufry to boost the clothes’ youthful appeal to young women, especially Gen-Zers, who apparently buy Chanel ready-to-wear with incredible voracity. Or, perhaps, an attempt at doing streetwear to better compete with the likes of Balenciaga? There is nothing inherently wrong with that strategy, now so prevalent. But Virginie Viard is not exactly Martine Rose.

Chanel staged the show in Marseille, the seaside town of Provence, Southern France, not quite Coco Chanel’s beloved Biarritz, where she opened her first couture shop. And, rather than on the beach or promenade, or some luxury resort, the rooftop of La Cité Radieuse, a former appartement—now an art complex—designed by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, was chosen for the alfresco runway. Despite the retro-futuristic-brutalist façade of the building, the show venue up there was rather underwhelming, compared to other outside-of-Paris locations Chanel had previously chosen for their between-seasons shows. Perhaps to heighten the non-existent futurism of the clothes, various ‘Parts’ of Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygène and Équinoxe, with their vintage electronic bleeps and analogue synth swirls, soundtracked the show to lend an oddly dated—and disconnected—sonic vibe to the parade.

By now, we know and can easily discern that Ms Viard has no qualms asserting her denizen view of how Chanel should look. She does not bother with preponderant influences that other French labels hope to assert. Ms Viard is lucky that she works for a brand considered iconic in the history of French fashion. Slap the name on the back of the clothes, add the recognisable interlocking Cs and profusion of camelias, and people will come to Chanel—in droves, no matter how down-market the results may appear to be. So this season, she continues with those tedious house codes, as well as a strange approach to proportion—frankly, unflattering—and motifs associated with la mer: shells, fish and fishing nets, waves, and “the sea and the wind [that] made me want to play with wetsuits”. And, feminine touches such as short low-waisted skirts with slits on the sides to show a pair of bloomers and swathe of fabric wrapped around the hips of strapless-top-and-pants set.

As in past collections, there was a display of how Ms Viard worked into her designs elements inspired by “art”. This time, no individual artist was identified (a few of them are collaborating with Chanel, and they come from different countries; some of them work in Marseille). Many of the outfits sported patch-pockets (including open-sided kangaroo pockets) with geometric patterns that looked decidedly juvenile in their placements. However much “art” there was in the collection, there was nothing artful in their employment or execution, less so when they are lost in the uniquely Virginie Viard silhouettes entrenched somewhere between feeble and frumpy. Rumours have been rife that Hedi Slimane might go to Chanel if he were to leave Celine (following possible failures in contract renegotiations). Amid the chatter, one would imagine that Ms Viard might be inclined to put out what would at least be moderately interesting. For her, could this collection be the proverbial nail in the coffin?

Screen shot (top): chanel/YouTube. Photos: Chanel