Chanel A/W2021 Campaign

The idyllic setting of Chanel’s A/W2021 Ready-to-Wear campaign is a welcome paradise. As London’s surprise heatwave shifts into the damp and grey mode, Chanel offers us an escape to Megève – a historically exclusive ski resort located in the Mont Blanc massif popularised by the Rothschild dynasty.  In a campaign focused on celebrating and evolving the luxury Chalet aesthetic, this season’s textures and materials are complimented and accentuated by the seemingly endless winter wonderland.  Ice-blue skies and feathery mountain tops offer a welcome contrast to the balcony’s warm wood and the two-tone shearling coats and blankets that dominate the scene.  Louise de Chevigny reclines across the blanketed banquette, her form-fitting black tweed jacket providing sophistication for apres-ski and beyond.  Tweed is paired with tailored wide-cut velvet trousers creating a cacophony of winter fabrics and a sensory experience.

It’s a welcome sight to see the chic sophisticated silhouettes of Chanel found lounging in the chalet or dropped directly onto the slopes.  Vivienne Rohner appears to have mastered the slopes as her dark pink tweed ensemble radiates amidst the white snow blanket, providing an effortlessly timeless image. The jacket’s bold crop fit reveals Rohner’s waist emphasised with a jewelled belt, curating a refreshingly subtle subversion of cold-weather fashion.  Elsewhere, Chanel muse Mica Argañaraz finds the lens in a relaxed posture that showcases this season’s black quilted dungarees and voluminous teddy-bear boots.

Shot by in-demand Dutch fashion photography duo, Inez & Vinoodh, the styling and palette evokes a distinctively ‘70s sensibility.  The expansive visual vocabulary of Inez & Vinoodh is always apparent.  With recent explorations of ‘90s grunge and tartan punk, Chanel’s 2021 Autumn Winter campaign proves to be yet another example of strong and purposeful aesthetic choices from Inez & Vinoodh that evoke a surreal yet shared cultural history and future.  The campaign focuses on individual shots, employing mostly brightly saturated palettes alongside muted allusions to Alpine culture.  Tracks indent the snow, signifying the existence of skiers unseen.  A dreamlike image shot in black and white captures the opulence of the black iridescent tweed jacket and transparent crêpe georgette skirt in a dusted woodland scene, while a serene St. Bernard lies passively in the snow.

Inez & Vinoodh beautifully capture the contrasts in Virginie Viard’s designs for Chanel this season, finding a vision that both masters the peaks of Megève and honours the fearless fashion landscape. 

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