Chanel, Vui on’s burst of colour

Karl Lagerfeld, pictured, took Chanel to the sea on Tuesday, creating a huge beach with real waves for his joyously zingy Paris fashion week show.

The 85-year-old produced a winningly youthful and colourful collection on the last day of a marathon month of shows in New York, London and Milan.

Louis Vuitton wrapped up the packed nine-day Paris schedule with an equally vivid show where designer Nicolas Ghesquiere cut his clean and classy ankle boots, short skirt and jacket schtick with vivid electric florals and highly-coloured abstract painted patterns.

The brightness of both big shows with their celebrity-packed front rows – Cate Blanchett ruled at Vuitton while the Princess of Thailand Sirivannavari Nariratana graced Chanel – were in stark contrast to the battalions of black that swept much of the Paris spring-summer catwalks.

Ghesquiere’s show was controversially co-ed, with men walking the runway too even though the label has its own menswear line now led by the American designer Virgil Abloh of Off-White fame.

At the Louis Vuitton show in Paris, it was his mini-bags and a run of short belted dresses, two in glinting metallic mail, that drew the most admiring looks along with minimalistic three-tone coats and jackets.

Lagerfeld hit the sweet spot from his oversized Chanel jackets and 1960s-style egg-shell blue trapeze coat dress to a long line of classy casual looks using the show’s beach umbrella motif. With a new line of big crystal necklaces, belts and earrings, the label’s name also turned up on a set of double-billed straw hats with CHA at the front and NEL at the back. Little silver and black beach-ball bags came on Chanel chains and a black scallop shell-shaped number had smartphones clicking. –