Lagerfeld’s Cross-Dressing Cocos

It was all softness and light at Chanel this morning where Karl Lagerfeld left the house’s gold buttons and little black dresses behind in favor of a sweet, frothy collection streaked with silver in icy pastels.  The silver-edged Chanel jacket now comes with a boxy, pair of Bermuda shorts and silver fingerless gloves—or rather hand warmers±with spacy silver bottines. Artists tend to capture their own likeness in all their subjects and the fingerless gloves recall Lagerfeld himself who wears them constantly. Satin charmeuse columns were so soft in the palest colors and long, narrow skirts in ruffled tulle looked cloud-like. Models’ hair built up into surreal, heart shape buns with oversized bows—Lagerfeld said he was thinking of the Comtesse de Castiglione— brought to mind the sweet, round-faced bangs style of Lily Allen, a Chanel favorite, or some pint-sized perfect Victorian bisque doll. The best in this “neon baroque” collection came at the end when Lagerfeld brought out an ivory satin sleeveless column dressed with white collar and huge black man’s tie pinned with an equally huge diamanté brooch—a sassy Coco cross-dressing touch for this modern Gigi.

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