Dispatch from Versailles: Check out our top 25 looks (we had trouble choosing) from Chanel’s Marie Antoinette-meets-punk Cruise collection
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Crunch, crunch, crunch. The sound of platform sneakers on pea gravel signalled the start of the Chanel Resort 2013 show, with models emerging from a wall of greenery in the sprawling parterre garden of Versailles. A convoy of 300 black cars had chauffeured press and clients from Paris to the former home of Marie Antoinette for the event, which included a punk performance with Alice Dellal thrashing away on drums. The collection had many nods to the past: 18th century panniers, decorative stomachers and frilled sleeves, and cropped court wigs over ribbon-tied ponytails, all blended with cropped jackets and knickers in sugary pastels. Tilda Swinton, Vanessa Paradis and Inès de la Fressange mingled afterwards in a hot house with Lagerfeld, who was laden with jewellery including a delicate emerald pin. Emeralds and punk? Marie Antoinette and Coco Chanel? Quintessential Lagerfeld-style mash-ups.
Bernadette Morra is the former editor-in-chief of FASHION magazine. She has been covering the Canadian and international fashion scenes for more than 30 years, first at The Toronto Star, then at FASHION. Over her long career Bernadette has interviewed many fashion world legends including Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Gianni Versace.
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