Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2024-25 Hangzhou show: a journey from Paris’ Rue Cambon to West Lake, celebrating Coco Chanel’s passion for Chinese culture – with a Wim Wenders video starring Tilda Swinton

Dec 4 , 2024

Liu Wen opened Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2024-25 Hangzhou show – a celebration of Coco Chanel’s passion for Chinese culture, with a Wim Wenders video starring Tilda Swinton. Photo: AP

Liu Wen opened the stunning extravaganza on the shores of West Lake, featuring references to traditional Chinese motifs, and showcasing the maison’s craftsmanship and timeless elegance

French fashion house Chanel capped a very eventful year with a mesmerising show on the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, China, to unveil its Métiers d’Art 2024-25 collection.

Since parting ways with creative director Virginie Viard in June, the label has been a subject of constant speculation about the appointment of her successor, expected to be named this month.

The lack of a creative head, however, hasn’t slowed down the brand’s activations, both at home and abroad.

Just last month, Chanel restaged its 2024-25 cruise show, first held in Marseille, in Hong Kong. Attended by A-listers such as Penélope Cruz and G-Dragon, the event reinforced the label’s commitment to China, as president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky said in an interview at the time.

The Chanel Métiers d’Art 2024-25 show took place on the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, China. Photo: AP

The Métiers d’Art collection, which is unique to Chanel, is meant to showcase the unparalleled skills of its ateliers – ranging from feather maker Lemarié to embroiderer Lesage – with outfits that are more akin to haute couture than ready-to-wear creations.

There is often a connection between Chanel’s rich heritage and the locations of its Métiers d’Art shows – cities such as Dallas, Edinburgh and Rome.

The choice of Hangzhou was a nod to founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s famous Parisian apartment at Rue Cambon, where she kept a collection of Chinese Coromandel lacquer screens dating back to the 17th to 19th centuries. The largest one, still in the apartment, depicts Hangzhou’s scenic West Lake. “I would faint with happiness when I walked into a Chinese art dealer and saw a Coromandel,” said Coco Chanel, who kept that particular Hangzhou screen in her private office at Rue Cambon.

For the show, the brand worked with German director Wim Wenders to shoot a video starring Tilda Swinton, Xin Zhilei and Leah Dou.

Filmed in Paris and Hangzhou, the clip brings to life the West Lake Coromandel screen. Swinton stars as Coco Chanel – who in reality never visited China – embarking on a journey to Hangzhou and exploring its culture, from calligraphy to tea making.