Paris Fashion Week S/S 2012: Womenswear

Chanel

Karl Lagerfeld's imagination was sparked this season by the delicate, pastel vision of an underwater fantasy world. In a very literal sense, Lagerfeld played with his new fashion toy by sprinkling the models' hair with pearls and placing giant luminous shells in their hands as clutch purses. In a more figurative sense, the theme wound its way around the collection in the fabrics and details that were covered in an iridescent shimmer. Ribbons worked into white leather dresses, sequins covering white bouclé dresses or two-piece skirt suits all had the opal sheen of a shiny pearl. Even the flat go-go booties were in a shimmering metallic silver, while a finale dress was made from loops of black chiffon that looked a lot like mops of Japanese seaweed. But despite all the otherworldly shine, the shapes - boxy jackets, straight skirts, swinging dresses to the knee - were rigorously non-threatening and just the sort of fare Chanel's deep-pocketed customers like to gobble up after breakfast on the terrace at the Ritz.