A catwalk, suspended over the lake’s still waters, had been specially built and the evening (All photos: Chanel)
Everyone who has visited Hangzhou in China’s Zhejiang province would know this proverb: Shang you tiantang, xia you suhang — “Above there is heaven, below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou”. Once known as Lin’an, when the serene city south of the mighty Yangtze River was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty between 1132 and 1279, Hangzhou never fails to enchant, owing partly to its unmatchable natural scenery but also its deep-seated traditions in Chinese art, culture and literature.
Poets and philosophers were particularly enamoured of Xihu, its legendary West Lake, which they frequented for inspiration. Emperors, too, easily fell under Hangzhou’s spell, and were compelled to undertake the arduous journey there from Peking — the seat of imperial power 1,500km away — with most always loathing to leave.
One of China’s greatest rulers, the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was besotted by Hangzhou in much the same way as his grandfather, the formidable and longest-reigning Kangxi Emperor. Qianlong first journeyed to Hangzhou at the age of 40 in 1751, and would return to Jiangnan (a term that refers to the south of the Yangtze, covering the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu) six more times over the next three decades — a remarkable feat, given the sheer manpower, costs and logistics needed to move a royal court cross-country.
It was said that Qianlong modelled Yiheyuan, the Summer Palace of Beijing, after West Lake and whenever he missed the city and its beauty, he would take to paper and brush, producing poetry, paintings and drawings in its honour. But it was not just great men who succumbed to the thrall of a dream-like city set by a magical lake.
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Stepping into the screen
In the heart of Paris’ 1st arrondisement, along rue Cambon, a young Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel also fell in love with Hangzhou — albeit from a distance. It was the 1910s when the designer first chanced upon antique coromandel lacquer screens with her inamorato, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Infatuated by the fine details of birds, flowers, clouds and boatmen, sumptuously done up in ebony and the incised colours courtesy of a technique called kuan cai, Mademoiselle Chanel was said to have actively searched them out, culminating in a grand collection of 32 folding screens, with at least eight adorning her private apartment at any time. And it was one scene in particular, depicting Hangzhou and a view of its fabled freshwater lake, which served as the inspiration primaire for Chanel’s 2024/25 Métiers d’art collection.
French for “artisanal professions”, métiers d’art, in the hands of the luxury house, has become a byword for extraordinary sartorial expression, best articulated not through words, but highly specific handwork and craftsmanship. For example, there is the most refined embroidery one could possibly imagine from Lesage, exquisite feather work and pleats from Lemarié, and headwear to match from the unrivalled milliner, Maison Michel.
Each of these maisons d’art, involving hundreds of embroiderers, feather workers, goldsmiths, pleaters, paruriers and shoemakers, have been slowly acquired and supported by Chanel since 1984, in order to safeguard and preserve this art form for the future of French luxury. And it was none other than former creative director Karl Lagerfeld who initiated the first Métiers d’art collection 22 years ago to specifically showcase the prowess of these speciality ateliers. So, when the House of Chanel decided to unveil its latest Métiers d’art show by the shores of West Lake itself, it must have seemed as if the heavens smiled and gathered the world to Hangzhou for one night of pure sartorial magic.
Although previous Métiers d’art collections were held to great effect in cities as diverse as Dakar in Senegal and Manchester in the UK, few could doubt Hangzhou is a most worthy stage for a show dedicated to ne plus ultra creativity and craftsmanship.
Given the city’s legacy as one of China’s seven ancient capitals and a history that dates back 5,000 years, few destinations can even dream to rival it in terms of refinement. Renowned for its arts and crafts, spanning calligraphy to lacquerwork, ceramic painting, engraving and fan-making, Hangzhou is also home to the country’s oldest academy of art and is known as its tea capital on top of being a haven for silk production, thus drawing perfect parallels between Chanel’s savoir faire and the city’s own rich artistic lineage.
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From dream to reality
One of the founding philosophies of any Chanel Métiers d’art collection is that it must be based on encounters, which the house believes to be an essential source of creation. For 2024/25, the great German auteur director and icon of New German cinema Wim Wenders was commissioned to produce a short film to commemorate the occasion. Enlisting the aid of Tilda Swinton, an icon of the seventh art and herself a longstanding Chanel ambassador, this, interestingly, marks the first time the two friends are working together.
Fusing West with East, the short film opens with Swinton arriving at Mademoiselle Chanel’s very own apartment at 31 rue Cambon, running up the famous glass-encased staircase, only to come face to face with an antique paravent depicting a scene of West Lake. Her imagination immediately ignited, she messages two friends, played by fellow house ambassadors Xin Zhilei and Leah Dou (daughter of famed Chinese musician Dou Wei and Hong Kong superstar Faye Wong) to say “I will be in Hangzhou tomorrow”.
The rest of the scenes unfold with Swinton languidly making her way in and around Hangzhou, through tea trails in longjing plantations, aboard a traditional sampan serenely bypassing classic moon bridges with its distinctive high arches and, all the while, snapping photographs with her camera.
A Unesco World Heritage site since 2011, West Lake proved to be the natural choice for the Métiers d’art showcase. The evening, on Dec 3, began with guests ferried across from the wharf of the Zhejiang Xizi hotel, to enjoy a dreamy 20-minute cruise on traditional antique-style gold-roofed and red-pillared pleasure boats, before disembarking at Quyuan Fenghe, a park at its northeastern point commandeered in totality for the event.
A catwalk, suspended over the lake’s still waters, had been specially built and the evening, chilly and misty as compared to the cornflower blue skies of days prior, somehow added to the mystique and anticipation. Chanel CEO Leena Nair and president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky were on hand to greet the A-list guests, who included Hollywood stars Swinton and Lupita Nyong’o, Monegasque royal and style icon Charlotte Casiraghi, and the crème de la crème of Asian celebrities, such as Zhou Xun, Sakura Ando, William Chan, Kim Go-eun and Wang Yibo. Thailand was also represented by a top-tier trio of names, including Rebecca Patricia Armstrong, Prin Suparat and Mew Nittha Khuhapremkit.
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The minute the lights dimmed, a rousing tang gu, or ceremonial hall drum, performance signalled the start of a procession of 65 distinctively exquisite looks. In a respectful nod to the host country, formally referred to as gei mian zi, Liu Wen, widely acknowledged as China’s first supermodel, opened the show, gliding along the meandering path in a sweeping, floor-length coat dress and glittery knee-high boots.
The overall colour palette ranged from rich, lacquered hues to soft pastels, as evinced by jackets sent out by the Chanel Creation Studio, complete with matching feather boas. Almost every look featured superlative embroidered work by Maison Lesage, which incidentally celebrates its centenary this year, taking inspiration from the coromandel screen motifs while Atelier Montex, another embroiderer par excellence, created braids sewn with flowers in phosphorescent thread, which were then hand-painted to give a shadow effect.
Another elegant courtesy was extended to the Zhejiang capital with Hangzhou-born model Yilan Hua walking out wearing an embroidered sheer halter-neck slip dress with gathered collar and embroidered Lesage flowers. The finale outfit was, fittingly, a sartorial salutation to artistry, showcasing not one but two types of pleating techniques — sunburst and au bonheur des dames — embellished by Lemarié with inlays of lace, lurex thread and golden beads forming large camellias.
Despite the visually elevated feast and look after look of artisanal mastery, one proverbial loose thread was noticeably left dangling: the question as to who would finally be named as replacement to Virginie Viard, Lagerfeld’s successor, who left in June after serving five years as Chanel’s artistic director of fashion collections. Pre-show, there was a slight frisson detected in the crowd about how a new name was expected to be announced posthaste. Alas, it was not to be revealed in Hangzhou.
It says a lot when one of the greatest names in style and luxury did not need a human face — as yet — to represent it at a show that veritably places handmade artistry on a pedestal. There is a poem by Su Shi, hailed as the Song Dynasty’s preeminent scholar and one of its greatest masters of prose, which goes:
The brimming waves delight the eye on sunny days,
The dimming hills give a rare view in a rainy haze.
West Lake compares to the fair lady at her best,
Whether she is richly clothed or plainly dressed.
Perhaps his words summed up the evening aptly, expertly fusing West Lake’s mythical beauty and the world of fashion in a few lyrical lines. It is almost perfect. Almost. After all, anyone who is well acquainted with the House of Chanel would immediately realise the words “plainly dressed” do not exist in its lexicon — a fact proved unequivocally at the recent showcase in Hangzhou.
This article first appeared on Dec 16, 2024 in The Edge Malaysia.
