In September, Chanel unveiled a fantastical adventure at Harrods in a sensorial installation of Chanel's iconic codes, which was on view for three weeks. I was lucky enough to be there, and it was such an amazing experience that i had to share it with you my beloved wanderers!
Stepping inside the store, it's hard to know which part of Chanel's adventure requires attention first. On the ground floor, the brand has created a temporary 'misty garden' fashion boutique, lined with white and black walls embossed with lions' heads, and filled with every sartorial item imaginable - including the classic Harrods bag, which has been given a Chanel makeover.
Over in the beauty department, a pink make-up counter - complete with the pop-up photo booth seen in the A/W 2011 campaign and oversized Chanel perfume bottles - houses the Knightsbridge Collection, a limited-edition make-up range created by Peter Phillips, creative director of Chanel make-up.
And then it was the third floor with the magical 'Une Promenade' installation.
Trying to let you wander through this fairy-tale world i will present you some pictures accompanied by the complimentary narrative given at the entrance:
Like Alice stepping through the looking glass, visitors sense a change in scale, as though they have entered a magical kingdom where everything-materials, figures, symbols, colours and coveted objects created by Chanel - appears in a different light.
Visitors enter through a symbolic curtain of white beads, a reference to the pearls that Gabrielle Chanel so adored. Through this curtain, falling like a shower of pearls, one glimpses a garden of camellia trees. The spirit of 'Beauty and the Beast', the film by Jean Cocteau, animates a luxurious garden where flowers scintillate with diamonds in the display cases.
In 1995, Gabrielle Chanel pioneered the shoulder bag with her creation of the 2.55, which has since become legendary. To learn about the exceptional skills involved in making this bag, visitors step through a futuristic air-lock chamber and find themselves inside it! With walls lined with sensuous leather, digital displays and a wall of videos showing each step of the creative process - not to mention sound effects from the workshop - the room offers a sensory, mechanical and aesthetic take on one pf Chanel's most emblematic creations.
A spacious children's bedroom filled with figures of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld evokes memories of playing with dolls. Next, the visitor comes to the Haute Couture room, a reconstruction of Gabrielle Chanel's apartment at 31 rue Cambon, complete with her Coromandel screens and tall mirrors that reflect a never-ending succession of images: dresses displayed under glass, mannequins and the stunning cases used to deliver Haute Couture dresses to clients.
Karl Lagerfeld's Studio 7L, with its gigantic library, surprises anyone who finds themselves amongst the infinite walls of books. The pop art room is covered with silk-screened images of the Chanel No5 bottle.
The tweed room is dedicated to the preferred fabric for Chanel jackets. Tweed is showcased in a frame, black on black, like a work of art. Say the word "tweed" out loud and the sound is muted - mezzo-voce. This is heightened by a room designed to absorb sound.
The last stage of 'Une Promenade' takes a playful look at Chanel's most famous symbols: the lion, the clover-leaf, the double C, the Number 5 and the perfume bottle. A forest of emblems denoting Chanel mystique!
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