Chanel Haute Couture: For the Bedraggled Black Swan Lady Who Lunches in You

Today in Paris, Karl Lagerfeld presented the Chanel Haute Couture collection for Spring 2013. He told the Independent:

“Chanel is a real couture house and when Pierre Berge said that couture is dead, I’m sorry to tell him it survives very well. There’s a new clientele. In the past, a woman might have bought four or five dresses. Now those women buy 30. It’s a new wealth.”

Here’s what the “new wealth” will be buying from Chanel: Tweed suits and feathers.

The tweedy skirts and jackets were a new boxy twist on the classic Chanel suit.

Some of the garments had almost origami-like structure.

Open-toe lace boots and open-toe spandex liquid leggings? Interesting.

The camellia is Chanel’s signature flower; in this collection it was seen in white and in black.

Florals for spring are a given, but these are not the soft pastels you might expect.

Innovative necklines and bare shoulders.

Black floral: A wee wallpaper-y.

Although black and white looks crisp.

Short sleeves and long hemlines.

Only the darkly romantic need apply.

Playing with sheer, lace, ruffles, layers.

Metallics, more lace, an epic butterfly brooch.

For the ghost of Mae West.

To go with the feathers: A wild, winged eye.

Luxe takes on shades of midnight.

Apparently Lagerfeld used something called “microsequins.”

Black Swan’s lesser-known sister, Gray Swan.

Something about this telegraphs melancholy and disintegration. Maybe it’s the leaf.