Chanel Celebrates Craft, and Cardigans

7, they found themselves blinking in the frigid December fog at Place Skanderberg, just outside the Périphérique ring road, waiting for the brand’s annual Métiers d’Art show to begin.

Delivered by a fleet of Mercedeses, dressed to the nines in bouclé and draped in pearls, many were wearing necklaces from which dangled a small pair of gold scissors.

The reason: Le19M, the site of the show and the new home of the 11 specialist couture workshops that Chanel began acquiring in 1985.

First, however, there was a tour of the workshops, led in part by Blanca Li, the Spanish choreographer.

At 2 degrees Celsius, it was too cold for Champagne.

A low-key one at that.

A jacket partly obscured by a giant fluffy cardigan looked to be made out of metallic glass shards, until you took a closer look and realized it was embroidered with graphic sprays of sequins.

Cardigans were the star of the show, rendered slouchy and paired with densely worked, sequin-encrusted minidresses and tweed skirt suits.

The looks lightened up toward the end, in the form of a sheer black tulle skirt dotted with feathers and pearls and paired with a slim black cardigan, and a languid dress with a black-and-white bouclé top souped up with just a touch of crystals at the waist and cuffs.

A dinner was planned for the evening at the Montparnasse brasserie La Coupole, once a favorite of Man Ray and Josephine Baker, but there would be no after-party.

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