On the second day of the 2023 spring/summer Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, CHANEL held an interesting haute couture uniform series conference at the temporary Palace of the Grand Palais in Paris.

In the pre-show video, artist Xavier Veilhan imagined a wooden structure, shaped like a giant bird, landing on the Rue Cambon in Paris like a dream. Model Vivienne Rohner walked out of the installation and walked into CHANEL's private residence at 31 Rue Cambon like a dream. Foreshadowing the surreal atmosphere of this high-order show.

For friends who continue to pay attention to CHANEL's haute couture show in recent seasons, they will not be unfamiliar with the name of artist Xavier Veilhan. Since a year ago, Virginie Viard, the creative director of the brand, has cooperated with Veilhan to create the space art of the haute couture show. From the design of the spring/summer 2022 Haute Couture show integrating elements of the horse farm to a series of immersive constructivist installations in the autumn/Winter 2022 Haute Couture show, he has endowed CHANEL with a different kind of modernity across the fields of sculpture, installation, painting and photography, and this season is the third cooperation between the two sides. "I asked him to reinterpret the animal fables in his apartment and put his own spin on them," says Viard.

What kind of sparks she and Veilhan will strike again has been expected from the beginning of the official announcement of the cooperation.

However, different from the grand scenes and exquisite scenery in the past, when the guests excitedly walked into the show, the site in front of them was simple and low-key, until a mobile device built by wooden structure was slowly pushed into the center of the show, the top lights above the show, and the circus-like opening scene emerged in front of us, we suddenly realized. Virginie Viard and Veilhan's "Fashion Circus" is about to begin.

Virginie Viard said: "I love meeting and working with people, and at CHANEL and the various haute Artisan departments I've been fortunate to work with an incredible group of people. Work never feels like work here - that's another reason I love what I do."

As the third chapter in the trilogy of cooperation between Viard and Veilhan, the creative dialogue between the two sides starts from Ms. Gabrielle Chanel's private residence, where various animal sculptures, sculptures and paintings, such as lions, doe, stags, birds and camels, which Ms. Chanel loved during her life, are displayed. These animal elements are used as the cornerstone. Veilhan created 11 giant animal sculptures in wood, cardboard and paper for the show, while Viard made animals the inspiration for all the embroidery in the series.

When models suddenly emerged from the giant sculptures, the surreal scenes in the run-up to the show took hold. "I loved the idea of interrupting the process with an unexpected surprise," explains Viard.

The cute animal elements are transformed from the abstract style of the installation into the exquisite embroidery pattern on the haute couture uniform.

From the short tweed suit to the airy bridal gown that finished the show, there were embroideries of kittens, corgis, rabbits and swallows everywhere, either delicately sketched or regularly stacked to complement the brand's classic fabrics and styles.

On the invitation letter before the show, the illustration pattern drawn by Veilhan was designed in black and white versions to complement each other, interpreting CHANEL's black and white style code.

In the spring/Summer 2023 haute couture collection, Virginie Viard is also unique in the design of black and white elements, bringing a combination of craftsmanship and practical pieces, such as lines and backgrounds drawn by Veilhan, black and white, you have me, I have you.

Silhouette coats in white and beige fabrics are decorated with matching or gold sequins, adding sophistication to the pure look, while dramatic black top hat, black bow and boot versions of two-tone shoes complete the detail and are filled with the poetry of a marching band woman.

In turn, black twill jackets, off-the-shoulder dresses, buttons, piping and embroidery in a layered yarn gown were covered with white details to outline distinct layers and break the visual tedium.

Delicate black and white tweed and embroidery patterns create elegant suits and dresses. Skilled embroidery workshops combine fine sequins one by one, arranging them into a patterned plaid of a thousand birds, or using slender sequins to organize a soft texture similar to feathers, showing that craft and creativity go hand in hand.

In Viard's eyes, the most luxurious fabric is the Lesage workshop's tweed, which is an essential element in the CHANEL haute couture collection.

In the spring/summer 2023 show, Viard will show the bright charm of soft twill to the extreme, and more prominent vitality of the style to be interpreted.

For example, the suit that draws inspiration from the uniform of the celebration parade uses soft and flexible lines at the cuffs, bottom of the coat and skirt, weakening the sharp sense of the previous CHANEL coat, both from the visual and wearing is a new experience.

The tweed fabric is richly embroidered with gold and silver thread and heavy beaded embroidery, which reflects the luxurious radiance and neutralises the youthful sweetness of color and silhouette.

Stepping away from the carefully restrained embellishments in the tweed jacket, the next thing we see is Viard's vision of what a jungle fairy would wear.

In her mind, they should be a group of free shuttling through the flowers and flowers, with petals and leaves as companions.

She chose to combine the abstract with the concrete to present the beauty and fragrance of the flowers and the jungle. Based on the light and delicate dresses and jumpsuits, she combined the elements of layering, see-through, trim, pleats, thin straps and re-colored lace to give a sense of splendor to the light fabrics such as silk beadle, taffeta, ukan, georgette crepe and nantilly lace. It creates a subtle perspective effect while overlapping.

On closer inspection, the treatment of various crafts is similar to Veilhan's artistic style. Constructivism style embroidery textures and color combinations also appear on long coats, pleated dresses and see-through dress skirts. Abstract geometric lines infuse a more modern and pioneering energy into the soft silhouette.

At the end of the show, a series of pure white suits and dresses flowed out of the holy luster through the volume sense generated by fabric stacking, once again emphasizing the irresubstitutable creativity and technology of high-grade uniforms, and the elves in the rabbit hole have become the queen of the guardian and the shade of nature.

As the elephant sculpture in the center of the show began to rotate and gradually moved toward the center, supermodel Anna Ewers stepped out of the closed bridal gown this season, perhaps one of the most light and miniature bridal dresses in the CHANEL Haute couture collection, with a strapless cocktail length and a matching veil embroidered with white bird embroidery. Delivering a new attitude of high definition creativity - practical, simple, chic, this is almost Viard's boldest and most groundbreaking attempt since taking office, although she rarely gives interviews, but from the season's high, we can easily find that she is more and more firm and confident in her creativity.