CASTLE STYLE: Chanel will go ahead with its planned Métiers d’Art show at a château in France on Dec. 1, but there won’t be any guests in attendance.
Instead, the brand will film the display at the Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley, and will unveil creative director Virginie Viard’s collection on Chanel’s web site and social media platforms on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. CET, a spokeswoman for the house said.
When Chanel initially announced its plans for the show in mid-September, it said it hoped to welcome guests at the event, unless the situation and consequent health obligations changed in the interim.
Since then, France has entered its second lockdown in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The measures are officially in place until Dec. 1, although the government has already announced it will maintain strict restrictions on individual movement beyond that date.
Chanel follows in the footsteps of Versace, which switched from a physical show to a digital format shortly before the start of Milan Fashion Week in September. The Versace show was nonetheless a hit, generating buzz worth $11 million, according to data analytics firm Launchmetrics.
Traditionally a traveling show that has alighted in destinations — including Shanghai; Rome; Edinburgh, Scotland; Salzburg, Austria, and Dallas — Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show was held in Paris last December in the wake of the death of its longtime creative director Karl Lagerfeld earlier in the year.
Chanel was one of the first major brands to return to the catwalk this fall, holding a show with 500 guests at the Grand Palais on Oct. 6 that was one of the highlights of Paris Fashion Week.