Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Chanel in China

Mark your calendars! There is lots of Chanel related news that Freja fans should be aware of. A new Chanel boutique is opening up in Shanghai, China on November 25th (maybe someone will get their hands on 31 Rue Cambon), and Karl is putting on a Paris-Shanghai fashion show on December 3rd to coincide. According to the show's website, www.chanel-paris-shanghai.com, Karl will debut a short online movie just before the presentation of the collection, much like he did for the Paris-Moscow collection last year. Actual video of the runway show will be put up online December 4th.



Until then, you can find lots of pre-release media and news on the website. There is a "Diary of the Collection" section, which features short videos documenting the creation of the collection from its inception to its finish. There are only two (out of a total of ten) episodes up right now. Neither contains any terribly exciting material, but it's still interesting to see Karl sketching and to get glimpses of the creative processes that go into creating a Chanel collection.



Episode 2


And a possible look from the show


It remains to be seen whether Freja will be participating in any of the events related to this collection's release. She sat out the Paris-Moscow show, which made sense because Karl went with a mostly Russian/Eastern European cast of models. But will he choose to go with an all Asian cast for this show? Possibly, as Asian models like Liu Wen (walking the Victoria's Secret show this year) and Tao Okamoto are very popular right now. And if Karl decides to use only Asian models, will he limit that even further and only use Chinese models? If so, then that means Tao is out.

Perhaps it was easier to cast the Paris-Moscow show base on models' ethnicity, since Eastern European models have been dominating the runways for a few years now. The same can't be said for Asian models, so we might be seeing all the Chanel regulars walking this show instead. And since Karl hasn't been able to do anything lately without Freja by his side, all those Chinese Freja fans might have reason to get very excited.

If Freja does walk this show, I hope she's not paired off with Baptiste like she was during the Chanel SS10 show. It would be nice to see her in regular runway looks instead of androgynous ones that also double as social commentary. Anyway, we still have a few weeks to go before the show, so don't get too excited yet. We don't know if Freja is confirmed so I guess we'll just have to be extra vigilant for any more news.

Image Credits: screen capped by me from chanel-paris-shanghai.com

No comments:

Post a Comment