Stitching time: Chanel’s spring-summer haute couture collection

The starting point for the Spring-Summer haute couture collection: the ’20s, at a time when an avant-garde cultural movement had just taken root in Europe and Coco Chanel had just started her career as a fashion designer.

Slithering satin evening dresses seemed to be suspended from necklaces and were draped to reveal the back, and tiny beaded gilets could be slipped on to amplify the glamour quotient.

Chanel has amassed an army of skilled artisans under its Chanel’s Metiers d’Art (French for “artistic trades”) group. There are a reported 40 workshops that lend their expertise from embroidery to jewellerymaking to the various collections by the Maison today.

For the Spring/Summer 2022 couture collection, all of the embroidery workshops from Lesage to Atelier Montex chipped in to create stunning beadwork and needlework details that truly come to life upon closer inspection.

The clothes are simply miraculous tributes to the craft of the Chanel ateliers and the amazing artisans who create the jewel-like buttons, the handwoven tweeds, the embroideries, and the feathers and fabric flowers.

The show notes described the two-tone Mary Janes that anchored each one of the 45 runway looks as “inspired by the 1920s revisited via the 1980s”. Indeed, the kitten-heeled shoes added a Jazz Age twist to looks that range from tweed suits, evening dresses and a wedding gown.

Meet Chanel’s Gatsby bride who was a vision in a white silk chiffon dress that featured a slit in the front and a fancy sequin-embroidered neckline. The couture bride ditched the veil for a garland made of hand-applied camellias and a charming hand bouquet of camellias dipped in a deep blue shade.