How does Chanel haute couture get made? Ahead of Paris Fashion Week, we toured the fashion house’s French ateliers for a behind-the-seams look, from silver sequins to fluid fabrics

Mar 3 , 2024

Ever wondered how Chanel gets made? Style takes a behind-the-seams look at one of the French luxury house’s ateliers. Photo: Handout

Style spoke to two lead artisans at Chanel’s ateliers just before Paris Fashion Week, where the French luxury brand presented its spring/summer 2024 haute couture collection

Chanel’s creative director Virginie Viard would send models down a runway to a Kendrick Lamar soundtrack – and Style learned more about the luxury brand’s search for perfection

Unlike Chanel’s Paris flagship boutique on Rue Cambon, the luxury house’s haute couture ateliers are trickier to spot: they sit astride a quintessentially Parisian staircase behind a nondescript, logo-free door on Rue Duphot.

We visit on a Friday in January so wintry that it renders the city’s popular terrasses unusually bare. But the ateliers are abuzz with activity and the hum of sewing machines, as its artisans – known also as petites mains, or little hands – put the finishing touches on Chanel’s spring/summer 2024 haute couture collection before the fashion week show that coming Tuesday.

The haute couture spring/summer 2024 collections by French fashion house Chanel during Paris Fashion Week in 2024. Photo: Xinhua

Chanel’s creative director Virginie Viard would send a flurry of sherbet-hued tweed co-ords, gravity-defying tulle skirts and youthful barre-worthy silhouettes down her circular runway to the tune of Kendrick Lamar’s ebullient score. Above this scene, a gigantic button – emblazoned with the house’s CC insignia – descended UFO-like before resting at a cinematic tilt.

But as we stood fawning over the intricate sequin work and a silver disco ball-like jacket less than 96 hours before the show, they were still works in progress. Artisans passed around trays of Haribo gummies and geared up for a weekend of work as well as last-minute touches through Monday evening.

The savoir faire of Chanel’s haute couture collection. Photo: Handout

The artisans at the haute couture ateliers draw up patterns and base fabrics before sending them to Le 19M – the complex on the 19th arrondissement that houses 11 maisons d’arts and 700 artisans working with and under the umbrella of luxury house Chanel. Le 19M’s 1,400 mains are then responsible for embellishing, feathering and camellia-ing the model’s wares before ferrying everything back to Rue Cambon. There, the feathered and sequinned panels are assembled, and looks are given the green light.

In spite of all of this, the atmosphere in ateliers Maria and Josette – named after their intrepid lead artisans – is one of unexpected calm. These two ateliers are responsible for flou – the fluid and draped fabrics – and suiting, respectively.

Intricate sequin patterns on fabric in Chanel’s haute couture collection. Photo: Handout

When asked how she preserves this tranquillity, Josette replies with a smile, “Because we’re professional, we’re organised and experienced. We stay here as long as it needs to get finished.”