Viard’s first show as Lagerfeld successor marks new era for Chanel — theguardian.com

“Complacency,” designer Karl Lagerfeld once said, “is the beginning of the end.” Three months after his death, this spirit lives on at Chanel. The house has sprung out of mourning and back into action, transforming the Grand Palais in Paris into a Belle Époque railway station for the first collection by Lagerfeld’s successor, Virginie Viard. The show upheld Lagerfeld’s proud tradition of Chanel catwalk blockbusters. A grand station cafe bedecked with full art nouveau regalia, from curlicued brass luggage racks to polished silver coffee pots, and with the double-C logo embossed onto everything from carpets to station clocks, served breakfast to 500 guests before the first show, and lunch to the same number before the second.

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