You know you're witnessing a great fashion moment when icons as disparate as troubled British singer Amy Winehouse and the Duke of Westminster both figure in the same equation.
Last week, the fashion gods officially deemed London superhot and happening when the house of Chanel staged an outstanding collection that riffed on Coco Chanel's fascination with aristocratic British style and designer Karl Lagerfeld's penchant for edge and aberration.
It was the first time that Lagerfeld had ever staged a Chanel show in London and the French fashion house pulled out all the stops. A barrage of models sporting Winehouse-inspired beehives and dressed in an array of tweed, knit and plaid tulle pieces streamed through the expansive white gallery space of Phillips de Pury & Company. Hundreds of Chanel enthusiasts - including Claudia Schiffer, Rupert Everett, Emma Thompson and Natalie Imbruglia - watched from elegant chairs adorned with the CC logo.
The show was the latest Maison d'Art collection from Chanel, an annual presentation conceived in 2002 as a showcase for the couture artisans, who are a dying breed. Each year, a different city serves as inspiration. Last year, it was Monte Carlo; New York, Tokyo and Paris have also had turns. The expensive clothes, which will arrive at Chanel boutiques next summer, satisfy the well-heeled customer who wants something artful but may not be ready to splurge on dizzyingly costly made-to-measure couture.
While British and French sensibilities have traditionally been considered as different as chalk and cheese, this fusion of the two cultures, dubbed Paris-Londres, was a beautiful success.
"It's all part of the edginess of London," said Amanda Harlech, Lagerfeld's creative collaborator. "There are all kinds of little elements that are being channelled in Karl's special way - the punks, the mods, the Teddy boys, all those frock coats and that Dickensian thing. I see people like Daphne Guinness or Kate Moss in these outfits. It's a sort of Englishness that has to do with an ease of putting things together."
The roots of the London/Paris collaboration actually go back to Coco Chanel, who had two love affairs with British men. In 1910, she met polo player Arthur Capel, who lent her the money to open her first boutique. The were together for nine years, until Capel was killed in a car accident on Christmas Eve, 1919. In 1923, Chanel met the fabulously wealthy second Duke of Westminster. They had a tumultuous relationship for six years during which he showered her with lavish gifts, including a villa on the French Riviera. It has been said he also proposed marriage, but the pair never tied the knot.
The influence of these romances should not be underestimated. It was likely because of the duke that Chanel grew to love the little tweed hunting jacket, Lagerfeld said. "Think of it. It was because of the British that she even used tweed in the first place. In France, there was no such thing as tweed."
Bringing Chanel's sensibilities into the here and now is Lagerfeld's biggest challenge. But, as usual, he delivered. He not only modelled his girls after Winehouse (who was nominated for six Grammys that day), he also invited his major muse, 25-year-old Romanian-born, Montreal-raised model Irina Lazareanu, to provide the live soundtrack to the show. Lazareanu, along with her good friend Sean Lennon and a backup band, delivered a haunting performance of songs off her upcoming album.
The model-turned-chanteuse was a natural choice, Lagerfeld said. "She's chic. She's modern. She's the girl of the moment ... the It girl. So it really was the perfect thing, eh?"
Unquestionably, the presentation provided a kind of "moment" that was indicative of London's current power.
"Remember London in the sixites?" asked André Leon Tally, Vogue editor-at-large. "I think there's a revival of the excitement of what London can bring not only to fashion, but to art."
Jeanne Beker is host of Fashion Television.