CHANEL ATTACKED FOR FELLING TREES
Karl Lagerfeld created a spectacular mid-winter wood for his Paris catwalk on Tuesday, but immediately fell foul of environmental activists who accused him of felling century-old trees for the show. The veteran German creator turned the Grand Palais into a forest, with tons of dead leaves strewn on mirrored steps and nine tall mossy oaks planted down the middle of its vast nave. Trees had also been chopped down to make rows of benches for his guests, including Hollywood star Keira Knightley, British pop singer Lily Allen and former French first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy. But the France Nature Environment group condemned the show as “heresy,” accusing the luxury brand of trying to “give itself a more green image while completely divorced from the reality of protecting nature.” It said that whatever point Chanel was trying to prove with the show “had failed. Nature is not chopping down trees in a forest, putting them up for a few hours for a show and then throwing them into a skip.”
Chanel hit back strongly late Tuesday saying none of the oak and poplar trees it sourced from a forest in western France had been a century old.
“In buying the trees Chanel also promised to replant 100 new oak trees in the heart of the same forest,” the brand added in a statement. Chanel raised eyebrows last year for a PVC-themed collection at a time when plastic pollution is hitting the headlines. Fashion critics had earlier praised the set, with Harper’s Bazaar declaring that
the “runway may be [Lagerfeld’s] best yet.” It loved the “life-like forest” he conjured up that “seemed to extend infinitely.”
Lagerfeld began the fashion show with a run of full-length black coats matched with sparkling gold tights, one coat feathered at the shoulders and cuffs which gave it more than a hint of French Empire dash.
Earthy, autumnal colors dominated, lit up with the glint of embroidered crystals and glitter, as he ran through the gamut of Chanel’s classic tweedy looks – city slickers bringing a touch of ever-so-tasteful glamour to the horsey country set.
The whole top of one particularly striking coat with burnt orange velvet collars and cuffs was covered in a fall of delicate applique dark green and burnished gold leaves.
This was not the gold of the nouveau riche but the distressed sheen of old money.
The veteran picked up and ran with its mottled glow in a line of darkly burnished gold and copper boots, suits and skirts.
Critics and front-row stars including French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis and Iranian screen icon Golshifteh Farahani admired Lagerfeld’s new big bags and accessories.
They included a “log” handbag so close to the real thing you might risk losing it in the woods.
Chanel’s trademark long, pearl necklaces also made a reappearance, with former supermodel Cindy Crawford’s 16-year-old daughter Kaia Gerber wearing earrings featuring the brand’s double C logo.