Suite Francaise

The Ritz on Place Vendôme, where Coco Chanel returned to sleep each evening, has played a vital role throughout her label’s illustrious history. Following Karl Lagerfeld’s Métiers d’Art show,  explores the enduring relationshop between these two icons of Parisian style

- Justine Picardie

When Karl Lagerfeld staged Chanel’s 2017 Métiers d’Art collection at the Ritz in Paris, it was a long-awaited homecoming. The Ritz is a key component of the Chanel legend: It’s just a few steps from Gabrielle Chanel’s first couture salon on Rue Cambon, and a place where she lived from the 1930s onwards, until her death in 1971.

“It’s good for us to be here, no?” said Lagerfeld after the show. And indeed, it was a welcome reminder that the City of Light could still sparkle, even in the dark days of an uncertain world. Hence the lightheartedness of the presentation, entitled “Paris Cosmopolite,” with smiling models dancing their way around the tables where we, the lucky audience, sipped flutes of champagne. The extraordinary expertise of Chanel’s ateliers was evident in the intricately jewelled embellishments and delicate feathered tulles; as swift and nimble as Lagerfeld’s finest work for Chanel in the 35 years or so that he has been Creative Director of the brand.

And of course, it was impossible not to think of Gabrielle Chanel herself because of the setting. If the mirrored staircase at Rue Cambon is the backbone of the House of Chanel, then Chanel’s bedroom at the Ritz might be the hidden heart. For while her public life was conducted in the couture salons, and her richly decorated apartment on the second floor above the boutique, Chanel never slept at Rue Cambon, preferring to slip along the street, and into a side entrance of the Ritz, to her quiet bedroom on the top floor, with a view over the rooftops of Paris.