WATCH: Cara Delevingne Walks At Chanel Pre-Spring 2014 Show In Singapore

As the world awaits the approaching wave of fashion weeks (men’s), Karl Lagerfeld sent us to the East, where Chanel held its Cruise Pre-Spring 2014 Collection show in Singapore. Scroll down to watch the show.

It was a relatively quiet affair by Chanel standards: No giant wind turbines, Scottish palaces, or gargantuan globes to open the show. But, for Karl Lagerfeld the rustic setting of a disused former nutmeg plantation in Singapore, was the idyllic venue for the unveiling of Chanel’s mid-season Cruise collection.
As the lights were lifted and the French 50s soundtrack awoken, models including Cara Delevingne, Lindsey Wixson, and Stella Tennant paraded onto the catwalk for an audience of fashion’s highest flyers.
“Today the Cruise collection is not only about travelling any more but we (Chanel) still travel because we show in all parts of the world,” explains Lagerfeld in a Chanel interview. “We’ve done Europe, we’ve done America, so it was time for the Eastern part of the World.”

 

The collection was subtle in palette and in style, with the opening looks vaguely inspired by designs that Chanel used in her first knit collection. This season, Lagerfeld chose to take a step back from a quantiful use of color and opted for a quieter, limited palette of beige, white, black, and navy -- keeping things simple, sophisticated, and sufficient.

Shapes were boxy yet feminine, as Lagerfeld added new proportions to the collection including long skirts that were swathed, opened, and tailored to make them look good with heels -- something that he believes is hard to achieve.

While louder looks came in the form of black Lacquer painted on feathers and ruffles in an abstract splotching effect -- as worn by Delevingne -- as well as use of light-reflecting fabrics (not shiny!) that Lagerfeld describes as good for the complexion. Who are we to disagree?

Chanel No.5 Bottle Bag

Other new nuances from the Pre-Spring 2014 Chanel lookbook included the famous Chanel No.5 fragrance bottle designed as a handbag, while jewelery was military-inspired, using heavy chains, metals, and -- as Lagerfeld points out -- fake diamonds because Chanel was famous for mixing-up authentic and faux elements in her collections.
In and amongst the fashion crowd, was avid Chanel fan Dakota Fanning who watched on from the front row which included Carine Roitfel and Anna Mouglalis.
“I think Karl does a great job of keeping Chanel alive, but at the same time its still so cool, young, fresh, and new,” comments Fanning.