Business as usual in the house that Lagerfeld once called home

Karl Lagerfeld may have latterly been renowned as planet fashion’s most famous personality, with his ponytail and knack for a viral-going accessory, but it really all began for him at the house of Chloé, where he was appointed creative director in 1966.

“My dresses … are made to transform everyday life into a fairy tale,” read a Lagerfeld quote from 1977 which featured on one of a series of postcards printed with images from his time at the house, which were left on the seats of guests as a tribute to the designer, who died last week aged 85.

I think the unsentimental design maestro would have appreciated the onwards, business-as-usual approach which Natacha Ramsay-levi, the current creative director, took to her fourth show for Chloé.

The collection was the essence of everything she has sculpted her modern Chloé woman to be; tough yet soft, eclectic but never too try-hard.

This season offered up compelling key pieces that touched on some of next autumn’s biggest emerging trends: tartan, excellent roomy coats, kilts and feminine, Forties-esque silky dresses.

“Pioneering spirit” and “equestrian and naval regalia” were among Ramsay-levi’s buzzwords as she paired pretty slips of devoré with stomping ribbed-knit calf boots or showed a new take on delicate toile de jouy with a tweedy trouser suit.

The intention at Chloé is to present an effortless vision of a woman one might want to be – intelligent, laid-back, bohemian – then layer on a cornucopia of products via which one can access that dream aesthetic.

To that end, “Chloé girls”, as the label’s army of stylish ambassadors are known, crowded the audience wearing the horse-print tailoring and carrying the ‘C’ bags that have become emblematic of the designer.

The latest additions to the house’s accessories armament included those calf boots, itsy-bitsy bags with feather adornments, geek-chic tortoiseshell glasses, chunky totemic jewellery, knitted neck warmers and giant furry clutch bags which were exactly the kind of memorable talking point piece that Lagerfeld pioneered in the years after departing Chloé, and of which he would surely have approved.