Surprisingly, Chanel’s Heritage Has Many Ties to Manchester

When Chanel announced that its 2024 Métiers d’Art show would take place in Manchester, England, many were perplexed. Manchester? Land of football hooligans and alt rockers The Smiths? It turns out there are many excellent reasons why it made sense for the Parisian luxury house to take over a strip of pubs and tattoo parlours in the city’s Northern Quarter on December 7, 2023.

Just two hours north of London by train, Manchester made it easy for Chanel to fill its front row with notables such as Kristen Stewart, Hugh Grant, Tilda Swinton and Lucy Boynton. Residents living above the storefronts watched in giddy amazement as celebs, clients and the media settled into their seats and models emerged under a clear canopy to protect them from the drizzle.

Here are a few more answers to the question “Why Manchester?”

1. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel famously vacationed an hour away at Eaton Hall, the residence of her longtime beau, The Duke of Westminster, where hunting and riding were two of her favourite holiday pursuits and where she fell for the mannish, tweedy style of rural English attire.

2. Manchester has a strong connection to the clothing industry. It was once the textile capital of the world and known as “Cottonopolis” thanks to its advancements in factory production. By 1860, half of the world’s cotton was being processed in Manchester.

3. Innovation and creativity remain characteristics of the region, though more so now in artistic pursuits such as architecture (Norman Foster), filmmaking (Danny Boyle), music (Joy Division, New Order and Simply Red) and writing (Jeanette Winterson). Chanel creative director Virginie Viard is clearly a fan. New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” closed out the show.

4. Viard also channelled her love of music into the collection. Sweaters had messages in the graphic lettering of nightclub flyers. Vinyl records appeared in sequined swirls. And 1,000 safety pins adorned a dress with a punk-rock-meets-Paris vibe.

5. Music was just one aspect of English culture that Viard tapped into to show off the talents of the legendary feather makers, embroiderers and other Métiers d’Art handcrafters. Teatime was represented with embroidered cups and saucers, cakes and pretty little pots. Soccer-style scarves were wrapped around necks, and the countryside feel came through in lots of tweed suits and caps.

6. Manchester is a UNESCO creative city for literature and therefore the perfect spot for Monaco royal and Chanel ambassador Charlotte Casiraghi to hold a live edition of Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon, a virtual book club she runs for the house. The day after the show, she sat down at the historic Victorian Baths for a chat about the power of literature with Stewart, Winterson and journalist Erica Wagner.

7. In a special Chanel Manchester issue of Chaos 69, a magazine by creative consultants Charlotte Stockdale and Katie Lyall, editor Jo-Ann Furniss writes that Mancunians are “wilful, not quite fitting in elsewhere, articulate, outspoken, revolutionary, creative, striving for excellence and working hard to achieve it.” The same description could easily apply to Gabrielle Chanel.

This article first appeared in FASHION’s Summer 2024 issue. Find out more here.