MAISON ON THE PRAIRIE

CHANEL, DALLAS; 2013

They like to do things big in Texas, and French house Chanel clearly got the memo right. The label staged its pre-autumn 2014 collection show in Dallas, after travelling to locations such as Edinburgh and Istanbul in previous seasons. It was a homecoming of sorts, as Coco Chanel herself visited the city in 1957 to receive an award from Stanley Marcus, then head of Dallas-based department store Neiman Marcus, which was one of the first shops to support the house when it reopened after a short hiatus during World War II.

The event, which took place at the Big D’s Fair Park, kicked off in a drive-in movie theatre built for the premiere of The Return, a film about Chanel’s relaunch of her couture atelier, directed by Karl Lagerfeld and starring Geraldine Chaplin as the designer. Guests enjoyed the film from the comfort of classic convertible cars, including Cadillacs and Mustangs.

After the screening, the crowd moved to a barn-style hall – Stars and Stripes, haystacks and wooden bleachers – to witness the show, which offered modern takes on the Old West, such as cowboy and Native American clothing.

The evening ended with a mega-party in a Western-style saloon straight out of a John Ford film, where guests had a blast playing with a mechanical bull, taking in a performance by band Hot Chip and indulging in an incredible array of Texan delicacies such as barbecue pork, corn dogs and all kinds of meats to delight a carnivore’s palate.

Besides Dallas’s top socialites and tycoons, a bevy of international editors, It girls and celebrities such as Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and Lily Collins attended the proceedings, paying respect to Lagerfeld for staging yet another memorable Chanel extravaganza.

+Prestige Hong Kong