Chanel Spring Summer 2019

One can barely hear the soft sound of the light waves echoing around the vast Grand Palais transformed temporarily into a resort beach complete with sands, dunes, and simulated sea waves and several lifeguards at either end for this special edition Chanel beach club. The airy beach with light sea breeze was the backdrop for a Chanel spring collection that felt relaxed and at ease with loose silhouettes and a strong sporty touch with black stretch bike shorts and matching twin sets.  

In this idyllic beach resort, the young women wore bright and pastel colors tweeds jackets, dresses and tunics with shorts in ample silhouettes that reflected the remarkable change from last season’s dead leaves fall wood presentation of subdued and covered up clothes destined for serious occasions. Now with a change of locale, the mood is more festive but in a relaxed manner.  The opening range of Chanel classic tweeds suits now came in with volume on top – a boxy sand or fuschia pink long sleeve with black pants, a cropped light orange with large sleeves and side slit panel skirt, a greenish elbow sleeve pocketed short dress and even a short sleeve version with long shorts good for a boardwalk stroll.

Besides these Chanel staples, there are also great knitwear including the tan cropped top and skirt that separately spelled CHA then NEL, or one version in black. And of course this being a beach setting, there were a series of dress down looks worn with denim jeans, denim skirts and denim laces. This is the kind of collection that just offered the customers plenty of great products to enjoy without any fuss. Even evenings dresses were completely pared down, devoid of any embroideries or surface embellishments such as the lace ruffle spaghetti strap dress or a chiffon and crepe short sleeve dress with a large logo belt. To compound the easiness, the models walk half way on the sand bare feet then get to put on their sandals only for the wooden boardwalk portion. And, for those who required their athleisure to be chic, well there’s plenty of stretch black cycling shorts and matching stretch or knit tops to match.  

On the accessories side, the sell out will be the sandals that were the only style of footwear shown in multiple colors with plastic heels. Logo earrings, straw hats, sun visors, colored sunglasses, large belts and the multiple versions of the leather bags in medium size can complete any outfits here or any others.  

This may be Chanel’s answer to the current mood of casualization and the impact of streetwear in luxury brands over the past five years – looser volume, denim here and there, logos on strategic products, and no embellishments. The theme of the beach also can play a strategic importance to develop a ‘beach’ related products similar to the launch of the separate capsule line ‘Coco Neige’ that will arrive at retail later this fall, around the same time as resort and during pre-fall collections for "Coco Plage’.   

While on the topic of the beach, there is a piece of the puzzle that does not yet seemed to fit into any category – that of the recent acquisition of the British men’s swimwear brand Olebar Brown that specialize in tailored and upmarket swim trunks and now has grown into a full resort lifestyle brand through mainly e-commerce and digital initiatives. Surely Olebar Brown can utilize the scale of Chanel but maybe Chanel, particularly its brand Eres, can benefit from the small-scale digital business and also the expertise in the mens’ market. Chanel recently launched a limited range of men’s makeup initially in South Korea with an eventual roll out. What better way than to grab a company with a captive male audience. As they say it’s all in a day’s worth of both business and pleasure anywhere along the coasts globally.

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Photos courtesy of Chanel