Chanel Resort 2011 with Crystal Renn

Kinda free, kinda WOW!

Darlings, the beautiful people all gathered in Saint-Tropez to look at Karl's latest and you weren't invited:

"It was like something out of a quintessential Riviera movie. With the sun setting over the sea, hundreds of Chanel's invited guests sitting in the red wooden chairs of Saint-Tropez's famous Sénéquier, and many more onlookers piling onto balconies and pressing against barricades, Natasha Poly, Anja Rubik, and the rest of Karl Lagerfeld's cast arrived at Quai Jean Jaurès via speedboat. And like the carefree starlets and jet-setters they were channeling, the models traipsed down the street-cum-runway often barefoot, wearing seventies-ish diaphanous caftans, long crocheted dresses, ruffle-lapelled silk jersey trouser suits, and patchwork denim skirts. Tanned and toned midriffs peeked out beneath a cropped sweater here or a button-down there, its hems tied in a saucy bow."

And who doesn't love a saucy bow? Of particular note to our minions was the appearance on the "runway" of girl-of-the-moment Crystal Renn, who's been doing yeoman's work this year forcing the people at the top of the industry to reconsider their narrow (and even dangerous) ideas of beauty.

This is doubly notable since Karl himself rather famously jammed a pointy-toed shoe in his mouth last year opining on the shift in the zeitgeist toward a wider range of body types in fashion:

"These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly," the Chanel designer tells Focus, going on to say that the fashion industry supports "dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women."

Nice to see even Karl Lagerfeld can be forced to eat a little shit when he runs his mouth off. We wonder what made him reconsider his stance. Was it a turn toward political correctness or is Crystal Renn getting so popular that big name designers can't afford to ignore her?

As for the collection:

Did anyone who actually lived through the '70s ever think that it would provide so much fodder for designers for the next 40 years? Hey, we love the '70s as much as anyone, but we're just surprised that it's STILL showing up on runways with so much frequency. Which isn't to say we don't like the collection. We do. It's easy and chic and feminine. Perfectly Chanel. Karl is so much easier to handle when he just keeps his mouth shut and designs pretty clothes.

[Photos: chanel.com]

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Labels: Chanel, Resort 2011 Collections