The finished line of a CHANEL Haute Couture garment conceals a long sequence of fittings, resewing, embroidery and braid. This United Kingdom edition looks beyond the runway to the Paris workrooms, archival history and two pieces held by our shop.
Gabrielle Chanel opened her first couture house in Biarritz in 1915 and designed her first Haute Couture collection. In 1918, she established her couture house at 31 Rue Cambon, bringing the boutique, salons and ateliers together in one building.
Gabrielle Chanel’s 1954 couture return restated her own view of modern dress: softly woven tweed, sleeves made for movement, and jackets and suits that allowed the body to remain free.
CHANEL Haute Couture is still created around 31 Rue Cambon in Paris. Official material describes three tailleur ateliers for structured jackets and suits, two flou ateliers for dresses and fluid fabrics, and a galon atelier dedicated to braid.
Entirely hand-made, an elaborate design may absorb hundreds of hours. Lesage, Lemarié and other specialist maisons contribute embroidery, feathers, flowers and tweed; the ateliers give the original drawing physical life.
CHANEL’s Spring-Summer 2015 film sets the finished catwalk look against the sewing and surface work that produced it. Seen closely, apparently continuous decoration becomes a sequence of minute hand-made decisions.
CHANEL Official | Savoir-faire of the Spring-Summer 2015 Haute Couture Collection
For Spring-Summer 2016, a set evoking a wooden pavilion and garden framed ideas drawn from natural materials. Wood became beads, sequins and sculptural frills; paper and organic fibres also entered the collection, while wild cotton appeared in the bridal finale.
Wood, paper, organic fibres and wild cotton were absorbed into the vocabulary of CHANEL tweed jackets, dresses and suits. Haute Couture savoir-faire altered their character and quietly questioned how preciousness is defined.
CHANEL Official | Savoir-faire of the Spring-Summer 2016 Haute Couture Collection
Fashion journalist and filmmaker Loïc Prigent enters the CHANEL Haute Couture archives, moving close to the details and explaining their fascination with irresistible pace.
Prigent makes serious knowledge feel immediate, preserving the excitement of each discovery. Very few fashion channels are this observant, intimate and amusing all at once.
English and French subtitles are available in the YouTube settings.
Loïc Prigent | Xclusive CHANEL: The SECRET Archives of Haute Couture!
Loïc Prigent’s films range from fittings and backstage moments to revealing atelier conversations. His eye for detail makes this an unusually rich and entertaining fashion archive.
Subscribe to Loïc PrigentSince Haute Couture is individually made rather than repeated as a standard size, the finishing differs from one piece to the next. The jacket and dress below show two approaches to that individuality.
Four pockets, gold CC buttons and a chain at the hem define this piece. The serial number 53606 is visible behind the neck label.
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Gold buttons engraved COCO CHANEL and detachable white cuffs punctuate the quiet navy, while the structure keeps the presence of hand tailoring in view.
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