Chanel Bag Blog

Actress Reese Witherspoon may not have been the only victim of Chanel dress deja vu at the Gold Globe Awards last week.

The Los Angeles Times Friday quoted “unconfirmed reports” that Natalie Portman’s “vintage” black lace Chanel dress may have been worn by Debra Messing at the 12th Annual Glamour Magazine Women of the Year Awards in 2001.

A couture scandal erupted Monday night when the fashion police recognized Witherspoon’s “vintage” Chanel dress as the same one worn by Kirsten Dunst to Globe parties in 2003.

If it is determined the same fashion faux pas was committed twice Monday, the Times predicts “heads will roll soon at Chanel’s corporate headquarters.”

If you are by any small chance in New York between 26 October and 5 November, make sure to visit the public exhibition of Chanel’s new collection of fine jewellery. The collection, entitled “Elements Celestes” includes pieces designed by the creative in Paris, made up of 15,400 precious stones, including diamonds, sapphires and pearls. The total collection weighs 330 carats!

Contemporary artist Xavier Veilhan was invited by Chanel to create a series of artworks inspired by the collection, providing a stellar backdrop to this glittering exhibition. With this exhibition Chanel hopes to consolidate its reputation as a fine jeweller, in the spirit of Coco Chanel herself, who created Bijoux de Diamonds in 1932. The exhibition will take place at 9 West 57 th Street following a private launch party on the 24 th .

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The world’s most glamorous womenswear label will be available in Selfridges London from this week. Chanel, which currently has boutiques on Bond Street and Heathrow, will showcase its beautiful bags, ready-to-wear and other delectables from the House’s master mind and just-as-famous designer, Karl Lagerfeld.

Anyone who has ever read Coco Chanel’s biography will agree she was a most remarkable woman of her times. The now infamous designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel is heralded to have freed women’s clothing from its old constraints… “the first [designer] to understand how a modern woman lived,” as one fashion editor says.

The Chanel legacy — capsulized in the little black dress — has been carried on by designer Karl Lagerfeld, who took over the House of Chanel in 1983. An exhibition opening this week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York demonstrates how Lagerfeld salutes and extends Chanel’s vision. During a preview of the show, it was noted how well Lagerfeld has built on a fashion vocabulary that remained consistent throughout Chanel’s long career. She used soft tweeds, sewed braid along the edge of jackets, put white fabric camillias on lapels, made purses of quilted leather and blackened the toes of her beige sling-back shoes. All her designs were created on living models, not sketch pads… and all were done n a mist of Chanel No. 5, still the world’s top-selling perfume.”

Lagerfeld has continued Chanel’s famous wearability while updating some of her ideas. For instance, a daysuit created two years ago with a typical Chanel cardigan jacket, outlined at the neck and waistline, of wool boucle in ivory and beige, with shots of coral. The lining is silk. The real Lagerfeld part: the illusion of unraveling wool, laced with colour, at the skirt and cuffs. The Chanel exhibit continues at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through August.

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French fashion house Chanel has won a court battle against an upmarket London sex shop over the house’s famous COCO trademark. The Paris-based company objected to sex shop Coco de Mer, owned by Samantha Roddick, 33 - the daughter of Body Shop founder Anita - registering the brand name COCO DE MER. Mr Justice Patten said: “Coco de mer is the name of species of palm tree which grows only on one or two of the islands in the Seychelles. The fruit of the tree is a large nut with two lobes, which is said to resemble a female bottom and genitalia.”

He added: “Ms Roddick says that she recognised the spiritual and sexual significance of the coco de mer nut, which is seen as a potent and particularly feminine symbol of fertility.Ms Roddick, 33, set up Coco de Mer in London’s Monmouth Street. She told Justice Patten that her shop sold a wide range of erotica and her aim is to “sell items of high quality in an attractive environment that is not smutty or alienating”

Miss Roddick claimed there was no risk of association between the brands, because the branding and marketing of Coco de Mer used the full name and was based on the name of the fruit. However, Chanel argued that only a tiny number of people who had spent holidays in the Seychelles would know that it was a native palm tree and even fewer would know of its erotic significance.

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Lacy ra-ra skirts, boucle jackets, elegant dresses and bouncy fun depicted the Chanel haute couture show in Paris yesterday. Ruffled blouses and chiffon neckerchiefs highlighted the slenderness of the neck, a look adopted by Nicole Kidman for the London premier of Cold Mountain recently. Karl Lagerfeld, who turns 70 this year, still has some creative work to do if he is to follow in Coco Chanel’s shoes. She worked until the ripe old age of 86.

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Nicole Kidman pocketed USD2 million for starring in an advertising spot for Chanel No. 5. The Australian actress portrays Marilyn Monroe followed by paparazzi in New York. Four minutes of footage were produced for this spot. This makes the ex wife of Tom Cruise the highest paid celebrity of the world at USD500,000 per minute.

The spot took four days to produce and was directed by Baz Luhrmann, who was responsible for the award-winning Moulin Rouge. The spot is destined to create some controversy since some are saying that Kidman was made to resemble Princess Diana rather than Marilyn Monroe.

8 January 2004
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