This year’s summer holidays had a special meaning for Y and I as it was a first time we were taking a full month off to travel with Y’s friends in different cities, and also the first time that Y was invited to a fashion show in Paris, and it wasn’t just any show we were talking about here. It was the FENDI Haute Fourrure show, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld’s first collection debut at the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week with the collection titled aptly ‘Silver Moon’. This show was also held to celebrate Karl Lagerfeld’s 50th anniversary this year designing for FENDI, and what better way then to showcase it through its luxurious furs which the house of FENDI is so known for!
Karl Lagerfeld’s history with Fendi well archived in this box set produced with Gerard Steidl.
On the eve of the show, we came back to our hotel room at Plaza Athenee to find a large yellow bag with Fendi’s famous logo on it, and inside was a cute canvas bag with a colorful “Fendi by Karl Lagerfeld” printed on it. It had a child like quality to it which made me beam and couldn’t help but quickly gestured to Y to open up the goodies. Inside the bag was a wooden box which enclosed all of Karl’s fashion sketches over the last 5 decades with Fendi and even some candid Q&A documented with Karl. Karl designed this heavy weight compendium with Gerhard Steidl, legendary in the publishing world for his photography books. This well known independent publisher has worked with Karl Lagerfeld since 1993, producing numerous books for Karl from his photographs of architecture, landscapes, portraits in addition to the commercial work done for Chanel. This was definitely THE coffee book of all coffee books, it was going to be on my bookshelf with my other favourite books and bear friends for sure.
I wish I could draw as well as Karl!
Y and I admiring the view at Plaza Athenee from our room before heading out for the show.
The Fendi Haute Fourrure show took place at the Theatre Des Champs Elysees, a beautiful Art Deco building which became the venue for dance, music and opera and one of the most notorious music riots of this century when Rite of Spring by Stravinsky was staged in 1913, the year this beautiful theatre opened. It was quite surreal as we walked down quickly from Plaza Athenee to the theatre, seeing all these photographers and security waiting outside for the Fashion VIPs, those that we would often see in the likes of Sartorialist and other fashion Instagrams.
Tons of people – photographers, security and more outside the Theatre Des Champs – Elysees.
I quickly admired the concrete facade of the building before being whisked away inside the reception area where we were served champagne and waited in anticipation to enter the theatre.
Facade of Theatre Des Champs – Elysees.
Entrance to event.
Finally, we were ushered in, and everyone had a little surprise waiting for them – black and white sketches of some of the furs we would see at the show, as well as a very useful and stylish binoculars, which would come in useful at the show.
Y’s Karlito clutch with Karl’s sketches.
Fendi binoculars
Most of the whos who of the Fashion world that turned up at the show were all seated at the end of the walkway here. Happy spotting.
The show set to the backdrop of one of Italian artist- Giorgio de Chirico’s most famous paintings, showcased a bedazzling display of furs, feathers, embroideries, intricately mixed and woven together in never before seen techniques. Some of the furs also looked somewhat, silvery, luminescent and ethereal, and that’s due to the innovative “silver fur effect” created and owned by Fendi, applied to the furs which gives it a unique and contemporary luminous metallic effect.
Models ranging from Lindsey Wixon, Lily Donaldson and Jamie Bouchert (these were the few I recognised) strutted down the catwalk in amazing luxurious fur coats ranging from chinchilla, sable, lynx, fox, Persian lamb, ermine – reshaped, redesigned into never seen before ways, with shades of white to black, grey, silver, dark brown and a romantic touch of flamingo pink. The embroidery techniques also extended into the leather boots, which added to the drama of some of the furs showcased. From the long dramatic hooded dark cape which Vanessa Moody opened the show with, to Inga Dezhina in the thigh high leather boots with her modern princess-meets-warrior like white fur dress, the styles were so different and enchanting.
Backdrop is an enormous surrealist print by Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico.
My favourite from the show – modern day angel. Picture credit: www.style.com
My favourite piece in the entire collection would be the white cape like coat with gold feathers modelled by Lexi Boling, bringing to mind a modern day angel and the words “Flights of Fantasy” kept ringing in my head when I saw this piece. I could so picture my favourite actress Tilda Swinton rocking this look totally.
See the ending video I managed to take below of the final recap of the show (pardon my shakey paws).
In Karl’s words, Haute Fourrure signified the “royal furs of furs”, and this show showcased the marriage of Karl’s vision and design with the amazing artistry of the best fur artisans from Fendi.
They probably knew that most of us would want to get up close and personal with the fur coats, and they quickly set up the entire collection on mannequins on the 2nd floor of the theatre for us to admire further. Although we have been invited to a private preview of the furs the day after, we couldn’t contain our excitement to snap some shots of the pieces and maybe catch a glimpse of Karl himself.
Fur coats on display after the amazing show.
Golden Feathers wing coat.
Glimpse of Karl. Although you can’t tell from this picture, I heard he was really happy with the way the collection turned out.
What I really liked about the fur coats were also their shapes. The cut of a fur coat can really make it or break it, and Fendi is also known as shown here for modernising the way the coats fall on one’s body. In general, the shapes in the collection were predominately voluminous and long, with a touch of short capes and linear shapes for the column inspired furs that express the “FENDI graphism and geometry”.
Feathers artistry.
Black and white.
So luxe!
Decadence!! Layers of different type of furs to create this long cape.
This amazing night ended with an invitation to dinner hosted by Fendi at the Musee d’Art Moderne for all the clients that were invited for the show, and the night ended with a big bang to find a huge surprise in my room – my own Karlito pink “K” bag charm!
Greetings by a team of staff at the entrance of Musee d’Art Moderne.
My own Karlito “K” bag charm.
