Chanel rides into Dallas with cowgirls and a whole lot of glamour - Telegraph.co.uk

What happens when Chanel rides into Texas with its Metiers d'Art show? Plenty of references to the Deep South and a succession of vintage classic American cars

BY Lisa Armstrong ^[1] | 11 December 2013

A model walks the runway at Chanelís Metiers d'Art fashion show in Dallas, Texas

What with the anniversary of JFK's assassination, it hasn't been the sunniest year in Dallas's PR history. News that Chanel would be staging its Metiers d'Art show here in the run up to Christmas must have been a cause for collective Stetson throwing.

Then came the worst snow and ice storm in 60 years, and the entire event was almost called off, along with many flights scheduled to bring in hundreds of journalists and the likes of Alexa Chung, Poppy Delevingne and Lauren Hutton. But even if Dallas has had its bleak moments, things have a way of working out for Chanel. The snow stopped, planes took off, the show went on.

Left to right: Celebrities Dakota Fanning, Lauren Hutton and Kristen Stewart

Superficially, Coco Chanel and Dallas don't appear to share much in common, other than the ambient scent of money that clings to each of them. Coco symbolised understatement whereas Dallas - well, quite. Their respective codes - governess-strict little black dresses, school mistressy tweeds, matelot stripes, boyish jersey on the one side, metal studded shirts, denim, fringing and a whole lotta shoulderpads on the other - couldn't be more different. As Mademoiselle says at one point, in a new Karl Lagerfeld directed film that debuted before last night's show: "I hate denim".

READ: Dreaming of Coco Chanel's bedroom at the Dallas Museum of Arts ^[2]

Turns out y'all, that Dallas was more than a shrewd bid to chase the Russian money now pumping into this city, but a thoughtful homage to a little known detour in her career.

When Mademoiselle decided to stage a comeback in 1953, it was the Americans, initially, who salvaged her reputation from the savage reviews of the French press. Neiman Marcus, the upmarket department store chain which sprang from Dallas, was particularly helpful - and Coco never forgot.

America always got Chanel. "A great success is predicted for the sweaters," pronounced Women's Wear Daily confidently in 1914 of her sporty jersey pieces. And in 1945,queues of GI's waited outside the Rue Cambon store to buy bottles of No. 5 to take home to their sweethearts.

On a more sombre note, Jackie Kennedy adored Chanel so much that she was wearing a pink Chanel style suit (since it's locked away in the National Archives fashion historians are still divided as to whether it was genuine or a "patriotic" authorised American copy) when her husband was assassinated in Dallas. She insisted on wearing it, bloodstained, to Lyndon Johnson's swearing in and then on the flight back to Washington.

That suit has become another emblem of Dallas, although perhaps one the city would rather do without. No such luck. Next April sees the publication, by Little Brown's, of a novel entitled The Pink Suit.

It was noticeably absent at least, in last night's collection, which playfully steered its way between the kitsch and the beautiful with the confidence of a seasoned line-dancer.

SEE: Scotland hosts Chanel's annual Métiers d'Art show ^[3]

Fringed white leather trousers, shaggy haired chaps (worn as sleeves over belted tweed coats) and quilted saddle bags flirted with kitsch, while ethereal looking, Navaho-beaded tulle dresses, stripy cashmere-blanket wraps, beaded dresses woven to look like tweed and a black chiffon dress embellished with the star of Texas were definitely beautiful. As for the cult sellers: who doesn't need a pair of tights with a cowboy leather tooled boot print on them or a flat-top buckaroo hat?

Other references to the Deep South included long, black, fitted velvet evening dresses with Confederate-style gold military piping, black sheriff ties, swathes of tribal jewellery composed of pearls, as well as a section featuring - look away now, Coco - blue denim. Other references to the Deep South included long, black, fitted velvet evening dresses with Confederate-style gold military piping, black sheriff ties, swathes of tribal jewellery composed of pearls, as well as a section featuring - look away now, Coco - blue denim. With iridescent stripes highlighting their Slavic cheekbones and lonesome feathers piercing their bedhead ponytails (courtesy of Sam McKnight and his team) the models looked like the hauntingly lovely bastard daughters of Chief Sitting Bull and Lee Van Cleef.

Looks from the catwalk

Gorgeous as the clothes were (my personal wish-list has a pair of slim black knee boots with a low gold heel at the top), a word or twenty must go to the meticulous set-design that has become a signature of Chanel's extravaganzas.

Before the show even began, guests were ushered into a succession of vintage classic American cars in trucks to watch a 20 minute, Lagerfeld-directed film detailing that fateful comeback show in Paris.

Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld

Featuring Rupert Everett as a persuasive journalist, Amanda Harlech as a surprisingly convincing American (she plays US Vogue's Bettina Ballard, one of Chanel's most enthusiastic supporters at a time when she most needed them) and the multi-talented Sam McKnight as the major duomo a beleaguered Chanel wants to marry, the film's undoubted star is Geraldine Chaplin, who inhabits Coco as an unexpectedly vulnerable and lonely figure. "That's old age, for you," said Chaplin. "It can soften even a brittle seeming person". As for the fragility she portrays, "I looked at clips of Coco on YouTube and studied her body language. Then I put on her clothes - the actual ones she wore, and it all came together."

Watch: Geraldine Chaplin on playing Coco Chanel in Lagerfeld's The Return ^[4]

The show's finale