If all roads lead to Rome, then which roads lead to Paris? For Chanelβs 13th MΓ©tiers dβArt show, Karl Lagerfeld took to the back lots of the famous CinecittΓ film studios in Rome to show the luxury brandβs pre-fall 2016 collection. Since Lagerfeldβs reign at Chanel, his MΓ©tiers dβArt shows have become legendary: a rodeo in Dallas (Paris in Dallas), a barge in Shanghai (Paris in Shanghai), a hotel in Salzburg (Paris in Salzburg) β the list goes on. The shows arenβt just bombastic gestures of wealth; their intention is also to celebrate the artisans around the world that contribute to the work of Chanelβs collections, from lace to buttonry to embroidery. But Lagerfeldβs decision to create a vintage Parisian set on Teatro No. 5, replete with bistro tables, a boulangerie, a cinema, a metro station, three weeks after the terrorist attacks in real Paris, had a deeper, more poetic and darkly coincidental meaning. The show, planned well before the attacks, was a cinematic love letter to Paris. Lagerfeld remarked: βI wanted to create a homage to Paris. The best Paris, the most romantic Paris and to nostalgia for an idealized version of the city that never really existed.β The CinecittΓ , otherwise known as Hollywood on the Tiber, was built by Benito Mussolini in 1937 in a scheme to revive the Italian film industry β later, such classics as La Dolce Vita and Satyricon were filmed there. In Dustin Lynnβs own cinematic portrait of MΓ©tiers dβArt show, set to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd and a spoken word piece by film legend Jean-Luc Godard, a modern Rome and a modern Paris clashes with a make-believe, Charles de Gaulle-era Paris. Then there are the models walking the runway, the high fashion, and the after party β just to remind us that it is all just fantasy.
