Chanel Couture wood paillette embroidered dress & honey bee earring; SAANA's Grace Farms
Chanel Couture wooden mosaic dress & oval sleeved jacket; Teresita Fernández, Double Glass River, 2015
Shades of beige bring us back to our own essential nature, from this sacred place of expansion a constellation of elements woven together form a heightened vision. In the spirit of renewal, avant-garde mind, Karl Lagerfeld has created ecological high fashion for the Chanel Spring 2016 Haute Couture Collection. Amplifying the tone Karl Lagerfeld is projecting, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the architecture firm SANAA give rise to architecture as art through their harmonious design for the River building at Grace Farms. An idyllic cross pollination of immersive art and fashion set on this eden of open space in New Canaan, Connecticut. True to the strong aesthetic positioning of each respective creator my first encounter is the silhouette, a meandering medley of pavilions capped by a snaking aluminum roof reflecting the sky, robust curves form sculptural shoulders in contrast to linear pencil skirts. Then, the enduring details, repurposed wood chips as delicately determined beading, a glimmering Teresita Fernández installation, thousands of tiny silvered glass cubes infinitely shifting and mirroring the pastoral surrounds, compositional choices that uphold the virtues of patience drop me into a state of meditation. The slippage between nature, art, fashion, architecture and progressive minds punctuates this moment in time. These are the thought leaders, SANAA, Lagerfeld, the Grace Farms Foundation that deliver me to a place of maximal refinement and beauty, sparkling self realization.
To create the first look, makeup artist Samantha Dametta used Chanel Rouge Allure Gloss in Sensible on lips, and Chanel Blush in Angelique for a glowing flush reminiscent of a walk in the woods. The second look harked towards the elements of imperial beauty present in the Chanel Couture Spring 2016 show, creating soft smoke with Chanel Les 4 Ombres in Tisse Smokey finished with a directional dash of Chanel Liquid Liner in Noir. The last look represents a full flowering, inspired expression deepened by lush shades of violet wearing Chanel Le Volume Mascara in Ardent Purple and Chanel Rouge Allure in Rayonnante.
Chanel Couture Spring 2016 Collection
Grace Farms, 365 Lukes Wood Road, New Canaan, Connecticut
Makeup by Samantha Dametta, Hair by Cosma De Marinis, Photographs by Tylor Hóu