With a Michel Gondry-directed ad starring A$AP Rocky and Margaret Qualley, a silver subway car necklace, and Tilda Swinton towering through a faux turnstile, Chanel arrived in New York City. It was Matthieu Blazy’s second show for the brand—and we loved the first so much that you can read Thom and my extended conversation about it in the new issue of System Collections on newsstands soon. For real fashion fans and real fashion stans—this was the fashion event of December.
So here’s the rundown: It was held in the abandoned subway station at Bowery and Kenmare. It was attended by Ayo Edibiri, and Martin Scorsese, and Romy Mars. It had models cosplaying as straphangers and dilettantes in sumptuously real clothes from Matthieu Blazy, playing off New York-y archetypes from Superman to students.
I rung up our Junior Fashion Reporter Mike Eckhaus, who was seated second-row behind Linda Evangelista, to chat all things about the show.
From the sequin dog-print suits (fabulous!) to Alex Consani’s swanky fedora, the show had lots for Mike and I to discuss. And, honestly, who better to review Chanel’s New York show than New York’s most beloved designer?
Hi Mike! Thanks for chatting about this with me.
First of all, I was so honored to be invited. It was amazing, like a real fashion show. You know what I mean? It’s fucking Chanel.
Define a “real fashion show.”
A real fashion show, I would say… a fashion show from LVMH or Prada or Chanel. I haven’t really been to any of those, so it’s really cool to get to see a production where there’s so much money behind it.
Uh-huh.
And it was fabulous. As you know, it was on the Bowery J stop, which is crazy.
Wait, was it the real stop or the abandoned stop?
That’s what I was confused about. They loaded guests in through this building on Bowery and Kenmare. I guess there’s some entry into the subway that I am not familiar with. So I think it’s a hidden stop. But it seemed real: A train pulled in and A$AP Rocky and the pretty actress—
Margaret Qualley—
Yes, she walked in and sat down and it started. I sat behind Linda Evangelista—I got a selfie with her—and another actress who other people will recognize. The show itself was really fun in a way that made me be like: I love fashion so much. Whatever they’re putting down, I am eating it, and drinking it, and living in it, and bathing in it so hard.
The energy was great, models wandering down the platform, going in and out of a train, making fake calls on a payphone, sitting on a bench. The casting was fab. Natasha Poly, Frankie Rayder, and then all the current big girls. It was like fun to just see really good casting and great top models.
The clothes were fabulous. It felt much lighter and reminded me of his work at Bottega in the development of textiles and things that didn’t feel focused on the codes of Chanel. It felt a lot more youthful and less encumbered in history.
It also had an element of camp—the whole like vibe of it was quite campy, you know? It was very far from reality, but the clothes I thought were really amazing. There was a cool, knit jacquard suit that was kind of ’80s and psychedelic-ish. There was this funny animal print covered in clear sequins.
There was also the element of archetype play, Alex Consani was wearing a pinstripe pantsuit and would walk around tipping her fedora. Some models had beehives and felt really glam and then other models felt more pedestrian—if you can call anything Chanel pedestrian. I found it to be really lighthearted, and not cheesy, and not overwrought. Seeing a show like that in New York feels special. It’s cool that he did that here.
You touched on the campiness. Chanel showing on the subway has made a lot of people question: Is it appropriate for a luxury brand to riff on public transit? But if you accept it as camp—like a New Yorker cartoon come to life—it works.
Totally. It played into that in its lightness. It never once read to me as commentary. It was using the subway as a bit of New York iconography, and then playing with kind of these “New York characters.” It was obviously supposed to be light and fun and not serious. It was visually very overwhelming in the best of ways. I thought it was fabulous!
Now, according to me, you are New York’s greatest designer. For real New Yorkers, we go to your show with Zoe (LA’s greatest designer) and we’re like, This is fucking it. This is the best thing the city has to offer.
Oh, thank you.
And I have to ask if you felt this show captured a real sense of New Yorkiness?
I definitely don’t look at Chanel for relatability, you know? There was play and like humor—and not in the way Lagerfeld did play and humor.
It’s a hard time for fashion designers to figure out how to bring humor into their work because everything in the world is so awful. It looked really lovely because it was embracing the idea of not having to be so serious all the time.
It wasn’t serious. They played the Happy Days theme song during the finale, which I thought was cute. It felt dissociative from reality in a fabulous way, you know? I thought the clothes were beautiful. Great show!
Okay, and what is the best subway station in New York according to you?
Oh my gosh, what’s my favorite subway station in New York? That’s a really tricky, tricky question. I have to think about it. [Ed. Note: The next day, Mike sent a full list of NYC’s best subway stops, printed below.] Chanel got a good one. It was funny because it’s not, like, Grand Central. It’s the Bowery J station. That’s fab, it really is.
Thank you for chatting—you made me feel like I was there. And I’m really glad that you got that selfie with Linda Evangelista.
I had to. She was sitting in front of me and I just felt so high and happy after the show. I saw her and I was like, “You’re my favorite model. I have to ask you.” She was totally sweet. I was so excited, I was trying to hold back a smile, like a giant grin and tried to look cool.
When will Linda Evangelista walk the Eckhaus Latta show?
Wait, okay, the other amazing thing was whoever Linda was sitting next to—I was obviously eavesdropping on a conversation—she was telling her seatmate about what each of the Chanel metiers do, like each craft. It was nice to hear someone like her, who’s been in the industry for so long and has defined the idea of a model, to take such pride in her job and the industry. She knows everything about fashion. She was so lovely—I just thought that was a really beautiful thing to overhear. So I love Linda.
Mike Eckhaus’ Best Subway Stations in New York City, In No Particular Order
- W4 St.
- 72nd St.
- Astor Place
- Bryant Park
- Bleeker St.
- The 57th St. F Train Stop
- 59th St.
- The Bowery J
- Bowling Green (“Whichever has the red tiles”)
- East Broadway
- “The above ground ones near Park Slope are also gorgeous, but I havent frequented them that much.”
- The Marcy J/M/Z
- “The stop by the Brooklyn Museum on the 5. It feels like you are stepping into Paris when you exit this station.”
- “What can I say, I love the subway!”