The hills are alive! Chanel hits Salzburg with Cara in tow

Date December 2, 2014

Chanel Metiers d'art Paris Salzburg 2014 — Photography courtesy of Chanel

See the Métier d’Arts images from Chanel Salzburg »

If anyone can make lederhosen cool, it’s Karl Lagerfeld. And cool he did at today’s Métier d’Arts show for Chanel, held in a rococo palace on the edge of Salzburg. Guests arrived to tables laden with strawberries, walnuts, meringues and tortes while servers offered plum waffles from rolling carts.

As the show began models wound through the castle, including the ornate Venetian room made famous in The Sound of Music, which was partially shot on the grounds. There were Austrian touches throughout the collection but this being the Métiers d’Art and just a step down from couture, this was a far cry from anything the Von Trapps would have skipped around Salzburg in.

There were jackets completely covered in mountain wildflowers, sewn by the skilled hands of the Lesage embroidery house. Larger pink blooms of the Heidi variety trimmed boleros and gaucho pants and sweet pink buds dotted white sweaters and tights. Traditional wide-lapelled jackets were swagged with metal and pearls. Hunting caps topped jackets embroidered with bunches of edelweiss and the famous flower sprouted as jewelry and knits. We didn’t spot any dirndls but a waitress-y apron fronted a black taffeta cocktail dress while a bustier was laced over a sparkling evening gown. And those lederhosen? They turned up in denim with scrolling topstiching worn with over-the-knee boots. Even one of Austria’s favorite street snacks, the pretzel, became a brooch.

“It was a very Black Forest/Hansel and Gretal vibe but grown up,” Lily Allen remarked after the show. “And that dress that Cara wore at the end was very similar to the wedding dress that Karl made for me… very folky country-ish.”

The night prior, Lagerfeld premiered a film he directed titled Reincarnation starring Delevingne and Pharrell Williams. In it Mademoiselle Chanel, played by Geraldine Chaplin, is on an Austrian holiday, and asks the hotel’s elevator boy, played by Williams, where he got his jacket. “They made it for me,” he replies. “Hmmm, I’m going to make it for me,” she says.

That jacket with wide trim and gold buttons became a cornerstone of her business. Today Lagerfeld gave the classic look another nudge forward by edging it in jagged black leather.