Chanel Metiers De L'Art 2012 Paris-Edimbourg Campaign Tilda Swinton

Chanel Metiers d' Art Show 2012 Scotland

The fashion illuminati dissented along with the eyes of many fashion publications for Chanel Metiers d' Art Show was held at the birth place of Mary Queen of Scots at Linlithgow palace snowing and of a cold winters night in December.

Since 2002 the creative director of the brand, Karl Lagerfeld, has dedicated a collection that sits in-between couture and ready to wear demonstrating the craft of the Chanel brand. Above all it brought a wave of excitement to the Scottish fashion industry, which has sadly been in decline but it back on the rise hopefully one day to be up as a fashion capital with constant movements such as this years launch of Edinburgh International Fashion Festival. The collection was heavily insipid by Scottish history interpreted into the Chanel look contemporary with strong bonds to the past bringing Parisian chic to a Scottish look. The brand has had a strong connection to Scotland from the beginning from Coco Chanel sourcing her cashmere and tweeds for the classic Chanel suit along with spending a lot of her time in Scotland with her lover Duke of Westminster. The use of different materials layered giving different compositions and the details of the fabric choices, styling was kept to a minimum which was a wise choice as the clothes could stand by themselves – the flat shoes gave a different feeling as overall the garments were more romantic juxtaposed with flat shoes giving more harshness but if high heels were chosen it would have given the garments a different dimension and overall look/energy. As with the backdrop simple yet dramatic held in the courtyard of the palace with the cold elements against them but the guests were kept worm by the 5 fires that were a center point with branded Chanel blankets. Thank you so much Chanel for investing in Scotland and deciding to show here! Below are my favorite looks from the show.

When I found this image I couldn’t help but think about the power of branding and symbols including packaging of products and what that communicates to us as consumers of both fashion and food. This is something that I am looking at in uni at the moment in Typography and Graphics & Promotion and Advertising

Chanel is a classic French, chic and inspirational brand completely contrasted to the image of fast, accessible, American and quick brand that McDonalds has. Taking the classic branding of the black and white of Chanel and putting it on the McDonalds packaging allows for a new dimensions, including perceptions, to what McDonalds brand values are possibly making McDonald’s glamorous changes our perception. Making us want to have the Chanel chicken nuggets? Could we be seeing collaboration between these two mega brands in the future?