CHANEL PRE-FALL 2009 : PARIS – MOSCOU

“Ruby red lacquered bags like Fabergé eggs swinging from gilded chains, heels sculpted like upturned onion domes, hair-and-pearl-adorned tiaras like those of Byzantine empresses—oh, and strict black Soviet “uniform” suits. Yes, this was Karl Lagerfeld setting off on another of his light but learned excursions into Coco Chanel’s exotic history with men: in this case, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, and the Russian inspirations—the Ballets Russes, Constructivism, Byzantine jewelry, and Slavic folklore—triggered by their relationship.”

See all the photos and read Sarah Mower’s full review of Chanel’s Paris-Moscou collection on Style.com

CHANEL PRE-FALL 2010 : PARIS – SHANGHAI

“How often does a city actually play a leading role in a fashion show? It happened tonight in Shanghai, where the spectacular twenty-first-century skyline and teeming waterfront—complete with kaleidoscopic neon, Jetsons-meets-Blade Runner towers, improbable glittering disco-ball telecommunications installations, and fast-moving pleasure boats, barges, and tugs—became the live, moving backdrop to Chanel‘s Paris-Shanghai pre-fall runway. As a thousand guests sat on a darkened pontoon moored in the Huangpu River, models ranged to and fro in front of a translucent wall, so the speedy, dirty, visually thrilling urban nightscape became, as Karl Lagerfeld put it, “the set.”"

See all the photos and read Sarah Mower’s full review of Chanel’s Paris-Shanghai collection on Style.com

CHANEL PRE-FALL 2011 : PARIS – BYZANCE

“”After the Grand Palais, I had to do the opposite,” Karl Lagerfeld said, tongue only partially in cheek, at Chanel‘s Métier d’Arts show in Paris tonight. Indeed, the cozy, intimate proceedings landed at the end of the spectrum furthest from the grand-scale Spring 2011 spectacle that had dared you not to drop your jaw. For that matter, it was equidistant from last year’s pre-fall show: a Shanghai extravaganza with a thousand guests taking it all in on a pontoon on the Huangpu River.”

See all the photos and read Sarah Mower’s full review of Chanel’s Paris-Byzance collection on Style.com

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