Bon soir!
Paris Fashion Week is an exciting time, where all the fashion elite unite in the fashion capital of the world to witness the offerings from designers for the latest season. With the Haute Couture shows taking place from January 21 through January 24, I knew there was one show that my “fashion-week-stalking-rampages” would be incomplete without conquering: the Chanel show. As one of the coveted luxury brands in the world, it is in Chanel tradition to house the haute couture show at Le Grand Palais so I knew that’s where my second stalking-rampage would take me!
On January 22, I slept in and missed Chanel’s 10:00 am show. Knowing the second show would commence at noon, I scurried to le Grand Palais for 11:30 am to catch the fashion elite’s glamorous arrivals. After two hours of waiting in negative-degree weather with frost-bitten feet, I managed to capture on camera the fashion elite in their natural habitat.
After rummaging through the 250+ photos I snapped, I present to you my top 40 street-style shots of the event taken by yours truly. Many different species of fashion elite were spotted in their natural environment so I will acquaint you to the wild world of fashion week.
Chanel Haute Couture Spring 2013: Street-Style Wildlife
The natural habitat: the runway show at le Grand Palais
Species A: The insiders. Those that are lucky/influential/wealthy enough to receive a coveted enveloped black-and-white invitation, this crowd includes fashion editors, journalists, bloggers, celebrities, and obnoxiously-wealthy consumers.
Species B: The outsiders. This species encompasses a wide range of diversity including paparazzi, fashion-followers (me), and those that just simply want to be blogged/photographed. These outsiders are as just as enjoyable to watch as the insiders; the fact that they are willing to wait outside for over 2 hours in unfavourable weather is proof enough of these species’ dedication to fashion (and it shows).
Now to witness the wildlife post-runway show as they exited le Grand Palais:
Carine Roitfeld: ex-editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, currently the editor-in-chief of CR Fashion Book
The most glamorous family I have ever seen
Imran Amed: spotted on the left, founder and editor of The Business of Fashion (one of my favourite resources about all that is fashion – and he is Canadian)
One of my favourite shots: the most eclectic group of individuals all captured in one shot, united in the name of fashion
Jeanne Beker: Host of FashionTelevisionChannel, Contributing Editor to The Toronto Star, Journalist, Author, Creative Director of EDIT, and my inspiration (fellow Canadian)
Baptiste Giabiconi: French model, musician, and the most perfectly-faced man I have ever seen
Glamorous troupe of women known as “the Russian mafia” led by Miroslava Duma (far right), ex-editor of Harper’s Bazaar Russia, now founder of Buro 24/7
It is a surreal experience to be engaged in this luxurious world of wildlife personally, rather than simply watching it through a blog post or video podcast as I once did. I have always watched clips of past Chanel shows on a screen; now it was my turn to be the individual behind the lens.
Not to be corny, but Coco Chanel was quoted once saying:
“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”
Attending (stalking) the Chanel show and watching the wildlife behave in their natural setting proved just how accurate this quote was indeed.
Be sure to check for next week’s blog post when I publish my top 40 street-style shots attending (stalking) the Jean Paul Gaultier show!
Bisous,
La fausse parisienne
La fausse parisienne 