For all its lush maximalism – opulent wood carving, sensuous layering and lacquered palettes steeped in cinnabar and ink – the Chinese aesthetic inspires silence. Like a lion’s roar echoing through a marbled palace corridor, it imposes order, commanding stillness in a world that often mistakes noise for significance. It favours depth over emptiness, and authority grounded in intelligence. It is in this setting, ensconced by walls painted with red lacquer, boiseries and tableaux depicting Chinese traditional art and life during the Ming dynasties, that one must be forgiven for exclaiming a gasp or two. For, if the Coromandel screens, frescoes and wood beams are all authentically Chinese, this Pagoda, where our Vogue Arabia shoot took place, is in fact the “Pagoda Paris” – a storied hotel particulier in France’s capital once converted by an impassioned Chinese art collector into a gilded sanctum of East Asian reverie.
What backdrop could be more apropos for Vogue Arabia to celebrate the recent Chanel Métiers d’Art 2024/25 collection, unveiled last December under a moonlit Hangzhou sky? The event unfolded like a myth: on a blackened runway tracing the edge of West Lake, model Liu Wen opened the show, seemingly drifting across water. It was Chanel’s first return to China since 2009 – less a homecoming, and rather, a forward-facing link between heritage and haute couture, tradition and reinvention.
Gabrielle Chanel harboured a deep fascination for the Chinese aesthetic, stemming from her passion for the symbolism and opulence associated with Far East art. Her rue Cambon apartment, untouched since her passing, is still home to her beloved Coromandel lacquer screens. These handmade talismans were more than objects to her; they were a world that reflected her passion for craftsmanship and poetic storytelling. “I’m like a snail,” she once said. “I carry my house with me.” Scenes of pagodas, cranes and mountains were her way of immersing herself in the mythic landscape of China.
The Chanel Métiers d’Art collection is, in many ways, an embodiment of that same reverence. There is no higher stage for craftsmanship than the Métiers d’Art show – the maison’s living love letter to fashion artistry. Some pieces demanded 700 hours of handwork, each stitch and sequin an act of devoted precision. At the heart of the collection is the virtuosity of Chanel’s 19M ateliers – a cultural and artisanal hub for 11 maisons of Métiers d’Art under Chanel’s umbrella just outside of Paris. Envision over 600 artisans working for Maison Lesage’s embroidery, Atelier Montex’s beadwork, Goossens’ alchemy of metal and Massaro’s architectural shoemaking. It is here, among thread, feather and tweed, that the talents of the artisans soar, shedding light on the techniques, inspirations and cultural echoes behind the collection’s pieces.
Thomas, a textile designer at Lesage, offers insight into his craft, underscored in the jacket and shirt of Look 11: “This fabric mixes different laces and fancy threads in dark shades like black, brown and purple,” he explains. “It has both a shiny and matte appearance, inspired by the Coromandel screens in Coco Chanel’s apartment. The lace patterns, sometimes layered, recall the mountains painted on these screens. It’s a complex fabric to work with, because it’s made up of several laces, sometimes superposed.”
The collection was steeped in elements both natural and surreal: water-ripple motifs danced across midnight-blue silk, while air was suggested in light tulles embroidered with cumulus clouds. One look was interpreted as “denim mist”. Fire and earth came through in crimson suiting and intricate gold threadwork evoking imperial scrolls. Camellias and lotuses, long sacred in Eastern symbolism, were reimagined in jet, jade and moonlit ivory beadwork – subtle references to Chanel’s favourite flower and the sacred bloom of China.
Agathe, an embroider at Atelier Montex who worked meticulously on look 15 (pictured above), offers insight to the craft of the top that required 35 hours to make: “I worked on a patch pattern, whose design was directly inspired by the Coromandel panel motifs. The complexity of this model lay in the extremely meticulous cutting and positioning of the various elements, in velvet or sequinned fabric by the metre. I felt like I was putting together a real textile puzzle, in order to reform the bird and the foliage.”
Seeing a Métiers d’Art collection show and ultimately owning a piece is an immersive experience: intellectually ravished, soul-stirred and intensely satisfied. What one discerns is not simply fashion, but the precision of a Weiqi master, the patience of a calligrapher brushing ink onto rice paper and the humbling experience of having witnessed the harmony of the Chanel ateliers producing beauty in silent synchrony.
The Métiers d’Art collection is now available across Chanel boutiques in the Middle East.
Photography: Jules Dalod-Danesi
Styling: Manon Hvejsel Sarron
Make-up: Claire Laugeois
Hair: Alexandra Santos
Model: Jeanne Zheng
Production: Roro Mroue
Photographer's assistant: Katya Leblond
Styling assistant: Marie Rubion
Production assistant: Valeria Tavera
