While the slow trickle of Resort 2013 emphasizes the pragmatic approach designers are making in a tenuous marketplace, the one collection offering something different deserves a closer look: that of the house of Chanel. It’s not so much that it is apart from the plethora of lean lines, colour and textile blocking and pretty florals that mark the predictability of Resort 2013 but that its deliberate choices, both in presentation and in design elements makes for more compelling writing (honestly, I can’t squeeze blood out of a rock when the collections resemble reruns on the runways both recent and from twenty years ago).
One cannot help but notice the proliferation of fairytale fantasy that has invaded our culture. In America, there has been programming drawing from darker aspects of fairytales with spins such as ”Grimm” or “Happily Ever After”, both embracing darker elements that are actually closer to the origins of fairytales than the sanitized versions introduced by conglomerates such as Disney that whitewashed the stories for a public looking for a sweeter escape.
Now, with the knowledge that a well-plugged in population has, we cannot bury ourselves in such a high degree of denial without a prescription. As such, although we still seek a “happily ever after” somehow, our entertainment also faces the bleak aspects of the evils much in the way that hard truths stare us down in the media.
There are more fairytale-based films due for release in the coming year, including more variations of Snow White. Not limited to this classic story, other fairytale-based films are expected, such as Tim Burton’s Pinnochio “prequel” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Beauty & the Beast” to a much darker interpretation of “Hansel & Gretel” made as witch hunters by Tommy Wirkola due next year.
Stories aside, the fairytale fantasy of being “rescued” resonates with people when hope seems amiss. Even those who are in good positions are not immune when fragile economic circumstances are so widespread and only appear to be growing. And the classic association with fairytales is the silhouette from the 18th century that Dior capitalized on when debuting his New Look to a beleaguered population weary of bloodshed, turmoil and rationing. The portrait neckline, nipped waist and padded hips or a sweeping skirt represent the fairytale uniform of every heroine who, in the end, is rescued from her plight in a romantic fashion. In the depths of our stress, there is no antidote less effective. That silhouette pursued by Dior in 1947 was so wildly embraced when looking at what preceded it makes more sense; he was dressing women in fantasy.
But with the 90s also fully embraced relevance cannot be missed and it is the quirky touches that are incorporated in Chanel’s fairytale setting. The “Run Lola Run” hair and chunky shoes hark to a decade many are finding comfort in (and a decade we can’t seem to escape; as if this was our last hurrah before the 21st century bestowed us the modern fears to test our resilience) and a decadent absurdity that makes the Hunger games seem too close for comfort. Deliberate choices all reviewed in comfort by an affluent audience in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles almost seem too ironically fitting when looking at the past year’s 99 per cent movement, the virulent student riots in Montreal and the recent outcry of the decadence by Francesca Eastwood in the burning of a luxury bag (the much sought-after Hermes Birkin bag) that is easily double the average salary of most first world citizens when unemployment is reaching proportions in line with the Depression and with some countries facing economic collapse.
Lagerfeld knew exactly what he was doing and why he chose that particular setting for his Resort collection. His world is one that is further and further apart from the real world populated by customers who are as connected with the realities of the public as Marie Antoinette when she created a farm on the grounds so she could pretend to be an average person.
To the public he offers a fantasy of beautiful clothes with just enough grit from the 90s when the population was jarred out of its hyper-consumer slumber and with a very much demure nod to the acknowledged absurdity of the Capitol citizenry that was portrayed in the “Hunger Games”, albeit with 18th century flourishes as opposed to the more Victorian frame of excess featured in that film.
One thing is for certain: his choice of venue lets us know that he knows what many are seeing, and the parallels are more Grimm than Disney. Back a few hundred years, they may have dressed like a fairy tale, but it was a different kind of happily ever after. Our wishes are inescapably in the realities of today and like the stories being unrolled out the tale may be more rooted in history repeating than in fanciful retelling. Find the romance in that.