NOT EVEN a global pandemic can freeze a fashion capital. Due to measures placed on gatherings, Haute Couture Week in Paris presenting the Fall/Winter 2020/2021 collections became an exercise in creativity — not just for the clothes, but how the brands would reach people, and most opted to show online. With people enjoying the collections at home, instead of jostling in Paris for the seats closest to the runway — the whole world gets a front-row seat.

Chanel ’s Virgine Viard showed her 2021 collection via YouTube in a video uploaded last week. Models, appearing alone on seamless backgrounds, danced to “Acid” by Jockstrap in a video shot by Swedish fashion director and photographer Mikael Jansson. Ms. Viard, who replaced Chanel Creative Director Karl Lagerfeld last year, showed an earlier collection that was meditative and monastic, based on founder Coco Chanel’s childhood in a convent at Aubazine. For this season, she takes inspiration from Chanel’s replacement, her own predecessor: Karl Lagerfeld himself.

Well, not quite.

In a statement, Ms. Viard says, “I was thinking about eccentric princesses, the kind of women that Karl Lagerfeld liked to accompany at parties at Le Palace.” Le Palace was a theater in Paris that operated as a nightclub, then went back to being a theater.

Taking inspiration from princesses, then, the collection is undeniably patrician, with luxurious velvet gowns, rich embroidery, and magnificent beading and jewelry. The nod to eccentricity is provided in styling, where these outfits contrast with faux-hawked models.

Tweed becomes a central element in this collection (a fabric long been associated with Chanel), worn of course as the familiar Chanel suit, but also in ankle-length dresses. The fabric favored by country gentry is given the runway treatment with embellishments such as sequins and embroidery. The Chanel suit also reached a high in the 1980s, around the time Karl Lagerfeld took over, perhaps because women were taking executive positions previously unavailable to them, and they had to suit up. The suits, then, also have a bit of predatory garishness that won’t look out-of-place in a catfight: we’re talking about a crystal-embellished black tweed suit, or one in fuchsia with gold trim.

The evening dresses, meanwhile, possess a certain je ne sais quoi that seems blessed with the spirit of models from the 1950s — think Suzy Parker, Lisa Fonssagrives, or Dovima. There’s a magnificent midnight blue dress with jeweled buttons running down its bodice, with bell sleeves making a statement, on a model with a hairdo matching the color of the dress. Another dress is in the same hue, tied at the high neckline with a bow, with a sheer cape trailing behind. As we discuss the 1980s, the influence of the New Romantic look can be seen in voluminous skirts, statement sleeves, and lace.

View the collection here: https://youtu.be/byGgiKj1LRY

BALMAIN
In a video uploaded last week by the maison, its haute couture collection appears to be a barge party. Called Balmain-sur-Seine (Balmain on the Seine), the collection was shown on the river of Paris itself, with models gliding on a runway set up on its deck. People lined up on bridges and the banks of the rivers to take photographs; it certainly was a spectacle to see haute couture on the river, with the sky and the city as its background.

We’re in love with a black beaded ball gown paired with full-length opera gloves, and a beret, of all things. Dresses with full-length ball skirts, such as a lovely black number beaded with a foliage pattern in white, or a cream ruched number with a crumpled sash, were seen on the boat. Another striking dress employed primary colors, with a hint of a pattern outlined in black, looking as if lifted from a Picasso. There are other references to art, such as in a rich velvet dress with what seems to be a baroque pattern running down its skirt. French singer Yseult, dressed in a Balmain white cape, performed during the show.

View the collection here: https://youtu.be/PeAgucSGVro

The use of rich fabrics in both shows point to a certain optimism for abundance and parties (read: gatherings in general) to return. Balmain Creative Director Olivier Rousteing said in a statement at the beginning of the video: “My own history makes it clear. Change can happen. Progress is possible. Today, as Balmain celebrates 75 years of Parisian excellence, Balmain-sur-Seine also looks to the future to highlight the powerful beauty of optimism.” — Joseph L. Garcia

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