Chanel’s enchanted forest catwalk amazed the fashion critics who called this Karl Lagerfeld’s catwalk at Grand Palais a real success. Meanwhile, the environmentalists accused it of “heresy”, what a diversity of opinions!
The world fashion critics hailed Karl Lagerfeld forest sho a set a success; the runway may be the best yet, said the Harper’s Bazaar magazine. Everyone agreed that the fashion show from the 85-year-old Karl Lagerfeld was extraordinary and “life-like forest … that seemed to extend infinitely”.
Famous guests like Keira Knightley, Lily Allen, Carla Bruni Sarkozy were installed on rows of wooden benches to watch the models walking down what appeared to be woodland paths.
For the show, several oaks and poplars cut down to dress Lagerfeld’s defile at Grand Palais in Paris this week. The presence of the live trees caused the anger of French environmentalists from France Nature Environment (FNE) federation of environmental groups. Chanel’s creative director turned the vast glass nave of Paris’s Grand Palais into an autumn forest for the event, strewing dead leaves, moss and logs on a mirrored runway and installed nine tall trees inside.
French environmentalists have criticised Lagerfeld forest show
The France Nature Environment (FNE) federation of ecology groups condemned Chanel for the show, accusing it of “heresy”.
“Chanel has missed the point once again. The celebrated fashion house chose to present a ‘natural’ decor with real trees for its haute couture event. The result: trees, some of them a hundred years old, were chopped down for a few hours of show,”
FNE said in a statement.
Chanel said none of the trees cut from a forest in western France and brought to the capital for its autumn-winter prêt-à-porter 2018-2019 show had been more than a century old. They had been authorised for cutting, it said, adding:
“In acquiring the trees, Chanel agreed to replant an area of 100 new oaks in the heart of the forest.”
