DOWN the stairs into the Grand Palais, we found ourselves wandering in a bleached white sea bed with giant shells, sea horses and sea weed climbing up towards the huge, glimmering shower curtain that contained it all. Karl Lagerfeld once again surpassed himself with the set - money as ever no object in his quest for newness and perfection.
As the twinkling harp music turned to haunting classical music and then Florence Welch's incredible voice took over (she wasn't visible, but she was singing live), the spring/summer 2012 Chanel collection emerged: delicate sea creatures darting out from the white in cream dresses of sea foam lace, pearlised tweed suits with full skirts and jackets cut shoulder-blade high at the back to show off pearl-studded spines, iridescent sequinned dresses falling to pale green ostrich feather skirts and chiffon finely gathered every which way across the bodices of dresses that had been caught in the tide.
Handheld, pearl encrusted sea shells made for clutch bags that will surely be next season's most desired status symbols, and silver leather ones were creased in every direction from the centre - twinkling like the sun had just caught the crest of a wave.
Flat soled metallic silver booties, pearl belts and little bags dripping with silken seaweed coils accessorised these sea nymphets, and colour bled in by way of pink and black blurred coral bed prints. One dress rippled with black-edged, pink printed chiffon scales, another had puffed black lace sleeves and fell in tiers of pale sequins, its top half overlaid in translucent chiffon to camouflage it just slightly from a predator's gaze.
Intricate couture techniques and an endless variety of fabric treatments meant the clothes moved and shimmered irrespective of the models wearing them, while ribbed knitted jackets and A-line skirts had the same light treatment but added a reality to the Chanel woman's life next season. Silver lamé skirts had drawstring waists and leather pencil skirts with matching, elastic-edged bomber jackets - all given a blueish, underwater sheen - gave the collection its sporty element. From the metallic silver tweed jackets to the most diaphanous tiered chiffon vests, worn over twinkling atheletic shorts or jellyfish skirts of pulsating tulle and lace, not a fraction of detail had been missed.
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