By Jin Yingying
French luxury house Chanel will showcase its next Métiers d’Art collection in Hangzhou on Dec 3, according to the fashion-industry trade journal Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). The news has been confirmed by several other fashion media outlets.
NSS Magazine highlighted that the Métiers d’Art collection, conceived and brought to life by Karl Lagerfeld 22 years ago, is an annual event presented every December.
Chanel last unveiled its Métiers d’Art line in China in 2009, with a collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld in Shanghai.
Vogue Singapore noted that the upcoming Métiers d’Art collection in Hangzhou “holds a special connection to Coco Chanel’s iconic Rue Cambon apartment, where she kept numerous Coromandel lacquer screens inspired by the storied city”.
WWD described Hangzhou on its website as “a major economic and e-commerce hub…a significant center for the production of silk”. The publication also remarked that the show “reflects Chanel’s commitment to China despite a slowdown in luxury spending, amid celebrations of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China”.
Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS, told WWD, “It’s the real landscape that inspired the screens that are in the apartment. These screens are intriguing. There’s a whole story behind them, even if it is imaginary. We’ve had the opportunity to visit Hangzhou several times and we felt it had the same mysterious atmosphere.”