In the book Haute Couture Shows, the arty scenographies of Xavier Veilhan for Chanel

It was not an easy challenge to succeed, in terms of fashion show staging, the genius of Karl Lagerfeld and his team. The designer who died in February 2019 left a lasting impression by reproducing, under the glass roof of the Grand Palais: a field of wind turbines, a supermarket, an ocean liner, the gardens of Versailles, an airliner or a space shuttle launch… Virginie Viard, who took over between 2019 and 2024, had the intelligence to imagine something different, but consistent with the spirit of Coco and Karl.

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Ola Rindal/©Alix Marnat, from Xavier Veilhan – Chanel, Flammarion

She therefore asked her friend, the visual artist Xavier Veilhan, who had never before undertaken this type of exercise, to collaborate on the scenography of the Haute Couture collections. An invitation more than an order. For the first, spring-summer 2022,Charlotte Casiraghi opened the show on horseback. “As the fashion show takes place in a fairly short period of time, I wanted some of my images to be of the order of appearance or vision”says the artist.

Alix Marnat/©Martin Argyroglo, from Xavier Veilhan – Chanel, Flammarion

The second, fall-winter 2022-2023, was set at L’Étrier de Paris, an equestrian center in the middle of the Bois de Boulogne, transformed thanks to a camouflage decor of dark blue and silver patterns (and without the presence of horses!).

Xavier Veilhan, from Xavier Veilhan – Chanel, Flammarion

For the third, spring-summer 2023, Xavier Veilhan imagined a bestiary of immense fantastic animals, half-totems, half-vehicles, from which the models emerged, a nod to the decorative bestiary of Mademoiselle Chanel’s apartment at 31 rue Cambon. Three scenographies told and illustrated in this inspiring work at the crossroads of fashion and contemporary art, which also has the merit of detailing the extraordinary know-how of the Chanel workshops.

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Xavier Veilhan/Chanel, Haute Couture Shows/7L/Flammarion, 184 pages.