The fantastic bestiary of the Chanel Haute Couture show

This season, the house of Chanel invited its guests to a magical parade for its spring-summer 2023 haute couture show. Under the “tent” of the Grand Palais Éphémère, monumental animal sculptures, in wood, cardboard or paper, parade procession as during popular festivals.

The visual artist Xavier Veilhan imagined these animated structures as the setting for the show, thus continuing his creative dialogue with Virginie Viard, the artistic director of the Chanel house, which began in January 2022.

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The Chanel women look like Madame Loyal in a top hat and black bow tie over a long haute couture dress (spring-summer 2023).

Chanel/ press photo

Couture chimeras

Croco-dogs, deer, birds, fish, camels and other lions follow one another on the runway… before revealing, hidden in the structure, the first models of the parade.

"I like when the marvelous arises and the course of things is interrupted," laughs Virginie Viard.

For this collection, the designer drew her inspiration from Gabrielle Chanel's apartment, rue Cambon, which is teeming with objects, sculptures and drawings representing animals.

In this fantastical bestiary from the Chanel Spring/Summer 2023 haute couture collection, a corgi of colorful sequins comes to dress up a cropped suit.

Photo Press

Elegant Lady Ringmaster

A fantastic bestiary subtly represented on precious embroideries in this collection.

Here, lovely little kittens, rabbits, deer or birds are embroidered with jewels on the jacket of an immaculate tweed skirt suit.

There, a corgi of colorful sequins comes to dress up a cropped suit.

The haute couture spectacle continues with floaty mille-feuille ballerina petticoats or miniskirts worn with lace-up ankle boots of sophisticated cheerleaders.

The Chanel women have the allure of Madame Loyal in a top hat and black bow tie on a long dress entirely re-embroidered with jewels and sequins, or in a floral lace jumpsuit.

Top model Anna Ewers in a mini wedding dress as delicate and ethereal as the flight of embroidered swallows on her Spring/Summer 2023 haute couture outfit. press photo

A poetic bride

For the finale, a gigantic cardboard elephant is placed in the center of the runway and reveals, through a hidden door, the supermodel Anna Ewers in a mini wedding dress as delicate and ethereal as the flight of swallows embroidered on her outfit and her tulle veil.

A last passage widely applauded by the celebrities who came to attend the show: Marion Cotillard, Vanessa Paradis, Tilda Swinton, Carole Bouquet, the Korean rapper G-Dragon or even Angèle.