Feathers fly at Chanel as Vuitton packs in stars

PARIS

Chanel returned to the Grand Palais, scene of the late Karl Lagerfeld's most legendary triumphs, for the first time in four years on Tuesday, without a designer but still able to ruffle feathers with its birdcage-themed Paris Fashion Week show.

The famed French house turned the refurbished Belle Epoque edifice into a giant aviary, with a white birdcage at its center to show off a collection festooned with plumes and feathers.

Without a creative director since June after Virginie Viard, who took over from Lagerfeld after his death in 2019, bowed out, Chanel's studio designed the spring summer collection, riffing on some of the label's standards, from its trademark tweeds to lacy flapper dresses and flying jackets.

But it was the feathers that stood out, used in ruff-like collars on crocheted bombers and on 1920s-style gowns inspired by the glamour of French writer Colette's forays into music hall and cabaret.

Chanel chief Bruno Pavlovsky told AFP that the French company would not be rushed into finding a replacement for Viard, who was Lagerfeld's righthand woman for decades.

"You should not have a knife at our throat" if you are going to make "the right choices," he insisted, saying there would likely be an announcement by the end of the year.