KARL Lagerfeld has always been one for the latest best thing. For SS17 that was tech. Lagerfeld, in a way only imagined by him and imaginable through the vehicle that is Chanel, manifested tech literally by sending out two robots in matching black and white Chanel suits.  Fortunately, as a Chanel suit is just about as symbolic as a robot, they were able to share an equal split of the attention. Though beyond putting a robot in a Chanel suit, there wasn’t really much else to Karl’s high-flown intro.
Moving on from the literal robotics, the collection then connected to other aspects of artificial intelligence. Crafting Chanel SS17 like something from a seventies sci-fi flick, in lurid colour scheme especially – all very Logan’s Run and embodied nicely in the hardwired setting, the basis of the collection otherwise was youth. Baseball caps were tilted to the side and oft matched the tweed they were paired with to create an energetic ensemble that was played out rather well.
This went on for 88 looks which allowed Karl to prove he can still make a Chanel suit relevant without a skipping a beat. Pairing an oversized luxury jean with baby pink lace on one occasion, following this up with gowns printed with fluorescent laser beams and circuit boards and then adding in the little black dresses and gorgeous ones in ivory silk that’ll keep ‘em coming back time after time, kept Chanel in top French fashion form.
So we get it, it’s 2016 and tech is booming for the Z generation demographic, but is it so necessary to put it on every last sleeve hemmed in Chanel’s atelier? A handbag with LED lights spelling out CHANEL doesn’t also need to spell out CURRENT with such despair. It runs the risk of not being just a cool way of jazzing up a Chanel bag to falling ironically flat.
This is nothing particularly concerning however; the sense of adventure in Lagerfeld’s creative process is unstoppable and his Lily-Rose Depp era Chanel is an easy one to swallow. Karl still very much has the touch.
by Livia Feltham
Images courtesy of Chanel