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Chanel: Farmer Karl Lagerfeld’s Ecological Hit

No serious student of fashion can consider their education to have been complete if they have not attended a runway show by Chanel, whose Spring 2010 collection presented Tuesday, Oct. 6, in Paris was a brilliant tour de force of style, presentation and proof that ecology can be not only politically correct, but cool.

“It’s Coco Ecolo, ecology can be chic. No? One can use natural fabrics and learn from nature,” said Lagerfeld after the show, which was staged in a giant mock Normandy barn replete with hay, twisted ladders, jute covered seats and a large wooden double C logo.

Lagerfeld used rough linen, jute and raffia throughout this collection injecting humor into the clothes, like a classic Chanel jacket in beige, modernized with linen sleeves and wool boucle torso.

Before an audience that included supermodel Claudia Schiffer and singer Prince, Lagerfeld even had Lily Allen sing her country and western influenced hit song, “Not Fair.” The English singer, her band and two models who acted like backup singers suddenly appeared on a platform that rose out of the worn grass barnyard, earning riotous applause.

The designer even played on the legend of Marie Antoinette, famed for her farm in the Petit Trianon where she enjoyed the pleasures of the simple life — churning butter, feeding animals and extending her garden.

Like the queen, Chanel models strolled around the barnyard wearing frayed linen lawn dresses and wind-tousled hair. One particularly fetching look was a brad and pants, covered by a feather-encrusted white man’s shirt and Revolutionary cockade on the model's clogs and bag.

Country and western pants with buttoned ankles paired with classic Chanel mini jackets also looked terrific, as did some lovely flared satin mini skirts artfully gathered at the waist.

But the stars of the show were Lagerfeld’s film director male muse Baptise Giabiconi, who escorted Danish model Freja Beha around the set, eventually kissing her on a pile of straw before being lured away by pouting model Lara Stone, who played a Marie Antoinette femme fatale.

The designer also sent out great, studded clogs with gold logos and probably the best bag collection seen on any runway this season, like splendid raffia totes with fabric petals and flowers.

Farmer Lagerfeld even wore homespun jeans, though with crocodile boots, though his, like most people’s shoes at the show, turned green from all the hay.

“Everyone keeps talking about the country, so it’s nice to actually go there sometimes. I was born in the country so I only have to remember my youth to imagine a place like this,” said Lagerfeld, who was brought up in a small country town outside of Hamburg, Germany.

But if the inspiration was rustic, the result was the most sophisticated show this season, a sure hit and a tremendous moment of frolicking fashion in Paris.

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