"Tout ici rayonne, tout fleurit, tout chante"

"Everything in here shines, blossoms, sings". With these words Victor Hugo described Antibes, the setting of Chanel Cruise 2012 collection. So what better colour than yellow to start this show? The first dresses are all made in yellow tweed. Longuette skirts and  slim-waisted jackets are predominant. Yellow then converts into wisteria and then again in a cream like colour.

Then you get a little twist on the roaring twenties, with high waisted flowing pants, ruffled blouses and straw-boaters hat. And of course, being it a Cruise collection, swimwear. Which, by the way, I don' t think Chanel recommends for swimming; it' s more of a poolside chic look, one piece black swimsuits, worn with beige tweed jackets or smooth bi-coloured (b&w, of course) capes. And jewellery. Possibly diamond camelia brooches and pearls sautoirs, which adorned heavily this collection.

 

A variation on black and white. Swimsuits turn into dresses, symmetrically "fought" by those two colours. Piet mondrian vibes all over them.

 Then black dresses covers themselves with coloured triangles, almost like a mosaic or a Depero painting. Delicate flowers blossoms on white dresses, then white and black again steal the scene. Long, red carpet looks, just in time for Cannes film festival. Very graphic dresses and soft, feminine floor lenght ones. The fabric (silk, tulle) flows even with tight skirts.
Karl Lagerfeld, as usual, never disappoints.

all images courtesy of Vogue.it