The Implications of Chanel’s Manchester Métiers d’Art Show
Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show, held in Manchester at the beginning of December, has raised questions relating to the competence of fashion show organizers, and houses’ concern for the cities in which they are held, as well as their residents. The president of fashion at Chanel, Bruno Pavlovsky, explained his decision to stage the annual runway show, in which the objective is the celebration of the artistry of the métiers d’art within the fashion house, in Manchester. He said the city was “audacious and interesting.” The Métiers d’Art had been held in recent years in Dakar, Salzburg, and Rome, and, according to The New York Times, Pavlovsky discussed that “Manchester has an incredible energy to its art scene, its music and football culture, and ideas that have been born here that have changed the world.” He added ‘that energy was incredibly inspiring to our creative director, Virginie Viard, and her vision for this collection’.
The show, held on Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter, was, unsurprisingly, met with lashing rain. Six hundred of Chanel’s guests, including Sofia Coppola, Hugh Grant, and Kristen Stewart, lined shop fronts and tattoo parlors along the street, huddling under a newly built glass covering. Michael Guabert, the house’s music supervisor, played from a selection of inspired tracks, which ranged from New Order to Afrodeutsche to Joy Division reworks through speakers. His “chronicle [of] the city’s musical output over the last 40 years,” according to Vogue, was an additional ode to Mancunian art. As models appeared on the runway, some of whom being girls scouted on the streets of Manchester days before, Viard’s collection was presented. It featured the typical Chanel tweed that Viard affirmed was “central to the collection,” a series of knee length skirts and scarves, and countless elaborate two pieces. As described by Chanel’s website, the collection “shimmers and shines,” with “playful nods to British music culture and Chanel’s art of tailoring.” The “contrasting autumnal and vivid colors, encrusted textures, pure silhouettes and carefree attitudes,” as Chanel explains, “invokes a soft yet audacious femininity.”
The opulence of the show was diminished by the sound of karaoke, blared from Mancunians from nearby pubs that was a response to the ban on local people attending the show, which the Daily Mail thought to cover. They reported that one resident said, “We were told not to go on our balconies and to keep our curtains shut during the show.” It was also noted that “Entrepreneurs in the immediate vicinity signed non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from speaking about the event.” The Guardian wrote that, in fact, “not everyone was impressed,” explaining that “local residents felt that the multi-million-pound spectacle was tone-deaf in a city where much of the population is feeling the bite of the cost-of-living crisis.” They further comment that “Manchester will not reap long-term benefits in employment from the collection” and include Pavlovsky’s remark: ‘We would love to have more local suppliers here, but they don’t exist.”
As the roads in Manchester became accessible again, and the celebrity attendees of the show flew back to New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, scandals began circulating. The subsequent controversy, emerging from UK publications to TikTok, depicts a distinct sense of discontent surrounding the aftermath. It’s evident that we are being forced to ask ourselves about the purpose of shows such as these, and facades of working-class celebration. If these fashion houses capitalize on the cultures of cities such as Manchester, are they worth the continued revere and influence?
MAIL ONLINE
Pro-Palestine protesters were filmed chanting “from the river to the sea” while disrupting an exclusive Chanel fashion show in Manchester that police had banned local people from watching from their balconies. Meanwhile in response to the crackdown on attendance and the disruption the event has caused the city Centre, fed up Mancunians blared karaoke from nearby pubs throughout proceedings.
As backlash built against Chanel this week, one resident said, 'We were told not to go on our balconies and to keep our curtains shut during the show. Entrepreneurs in the immediate vicinity signed non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from discussing the event.
The Chanel website describes the city in the northwest as “one of the most effervescent cities of pop culture and an avant-garde one, whose bands, spanning all genres, have changed the history of music.”
Article by Alana Courtney-Gleeson, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Chenglin Qu, Graphic Design Intern, PhotoBook Magazine
RELATED STORIES
