Painting is at the heart of the Chanel Fall 2021 Haute Couture collection with a runway presentation held at the Palais Galliera, City of Paris Fashion Museum, where the exhibition dedicated to Gabrielle Chanel continues.

“It was when I rediscovered these portraits of Gabrielle Chanel dressed up in black or white 1880s-style dresses, that I immediately thought about tableaux,” explains Virginie Viard. “Works by Berthe Morisot, Marie Laurencin and Édouard Manet. There are impressionist-inspired dresses, skirts that look like paintings and a long white satin dress punctuated with black bows like Morisot’s…”

Mikael Jansson, who took the pictures for the press kit while Sofia Coppola made the film and the teasers for the collection, photographed the actress and ambassador of the House, Margaret Qualley, wearing a jacket and A-line skirt in multicolour tweed over a bustier in pink broderie anglaise. Like an Impressionist painting, the sequinned tweed of a coat seems to be made up of a multitude of paint strokes. Blouses embroidered with mauve and pink sequinned motifs, or with little red, blue and yellow daisies on a black background, are tucked into low-waisted skirts in multicolour striped tweed. Pale pink and yellow tulle pompoms embellish a black paletot jacket, just like splashes of paint…

“There are dresses embroidered with water lilies, a jacket in a black tweed crafted from feathers with red and pink flowers,” says Virginie Viard. “I was also thinking about English gardens. I like to mix a touch of England with a very French style. It’s like blending the masculine and the feminine, which is what I’ve done with this collection too. That twist is very much a part of who I am.”