A model walks the runway on Tuesday during Chanel's show at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. Photo: IC

The long shadow of Karl Lagerfeld hung over Chanel's first Paris haute couture collection without the Kaiser on Tuesday.

His successor and former right-hand woman Virginie Viard - who admitted that she spent more time with him than any other person - recreated one of the legendary designer's libraries inside the Grand Palais, where Lagerfeld staged his shows.

The bibliophile - who died in February aged 85 - is estimated to have owned up to 350,000 books.

In a rotunda worthy of the British Library, Viard - a book lover herself - sent out a sleeker, more restrained and more classically Chanel collection than the master delivered in his final years.

Nods to Karl were everywhere from the models wearing their hair in ponytails echoing his white-powdered mane, to a series of dresses adorned with Lagerfeld's signature starched collars and cuffs.

The brand appeared to be putting Lagerfeld's legacy on the same footing as the French house's founder Coco Chanel.

That despite the German once admitting that Coco Chanel would have hated what he did.

Two-tone bowed shoes

The two-tone bowed shoes evoked the court dandies of Lagerfeld's favorite century, the 18th, with patent slippers adding another touch of boudoir glamour.

The discreet Viard - who did not talk to reporters - appeared briefly on the first floor of the set at the end to acknowledge the applause.

She did, however, put her own mark on the clothes.

A four-pocket belted trouser suit and coat spoke of a purer less flashy marriage of street style and couture in the future, as did some gorgeous retro silk bathrobe and pyjama pants combos.

A run of fluid high-line flared easy trousers ran through the collection, with a battalion of pencil skirts and dresses, often slit at the back. 

As Chanel said later, the library theme was also about Viard writing her own new page in fashion history.

White buttons and models in bookish glasses were also prominent as were all the Chanel standards of tweeds and Lagerfeld's sparkling highly-embroidered sequined pieces. 

On the day when Australian arachnologists named a new spider species Jotus karllagerfeldi for its resemblance to the German designer's trademark high kent collars and black sunglasses, Viard also indulged Lagerfeld's love of challengingly vivid colors.

Viard makes her mark



Kaia Gerber, the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, wore an almost acid tangerine thigh-length two-piece suit, whose shoulders were decked with a frosting of white embroidered flowers and a ruff. 

But overall Viard was more sober and subtle than the sometimes brash designs Lagerfeld would dash off.

Her front row celebrities led by Australian actress Margot Robbie and French star Isabelle Huppert seemed to have read the runes, wearing black and grey.

"I dreamed of a woman with a nonchalant elegance and a free and fluid silhouette," she said later in a statement, evoking the lightly-worn, relaxed refinement of the 1930s.

Viard saved her one revolutionary act for the end.

To the strains of the "I just want to be a woman" refrain of Portishead's song "Glory Box," she did away with the wedding cake dress finale that has traditionally closed Chanel haute couture shows.

Instead hers were pink satin pyjamas and a subtly feathered robe that Katharine Hepburn would have killed for.

Under a spell

Also on that same day, French designer Julien Fournie hailed witches as proto-feminist trailblazers who sent shivers through the patriarchy as he staged his Paris haute couture show in a church. 

The flamboyant couturier who believes that women should learn to love their curves, and knows how to make the best of them, sent out a run of models of all ages and shapes in corsets, killer heels and hip-hugging skirts.

Calling his collection "First Spell," he said he took his inspiration from witches who "knew how to control their destiny."

Women "can be beautiful at any age," he told AFP.

"Men have always wanted to strangle women's destiny and emancipation. We can no longer accept that," he added, railing against the recent passing of restrictive abortion laws by some states in the US.

"I have always found witches stimulating," Fournie said.

"Haute couture and magic share a taste for accumulated experience and tricks of the trade. Official education often does not appreciate this kind of knowledge," said the designer, who studied anatomy and trained as a doctor before finding his true passion in fashion.

'Time of truth' 

Fournie said fashion's feminism moment was no passing fad.

"We're living in a time of truth, of freedom, of 'Expose your pig,'" he declared, slapping the wall for emphasis.

The #Balancetonporc (Call out your pig) social media campaign, dubbed "France's #MeToo," has touched a nerve in a country that has long been seen as too soft on sexual harassment. 

Fournie is one of the elite band of haute couture designers who are allowed to show their handmade creations in the French capital.

He served his time at iconic French houses including Dior, Givenchy and Nina Ricci before launching his eponymous label in 2009.


Newspaper headline: Looking to the past