When Chanel travels, it’s never just about geography. This time, the journey unfolds from 31 rue Cambon in Paris to the tranquil waters of West Lake in Hangzhou. The Métiers d’Art 2024/25 campaign is a visual dialogue where East and West don’t collide — they breathe in harmony.
Photographed at twilight by Mikael Jansson, the campaign is more mirage than image. Tilda Swinton, Liu Wen, and Lulu Tenney don’t simply wear the clothes — they inhabit the story. They move like echoes across water, across silk, across time. They become part of the Coromandel screens that once framed Gabrielle Chanel’s private world.
“Here, landscape and body coexist. Both the garments and the setting are part of the same visual breath,” — say Chanel.
A collection built on craft
Métiers d’Art is not a season — it’s a state of mind. It’s Lesage embroidery speaking in the language of time. It’s Lognon pleats recalling architectural rhythm. It’s Lemarié camellias pinning memory to the lapel. This is craftsmanship elevated to authorship.
Each piece is more than design — it’s a story told in rare techniques. A satin blouse opens into a beaded top like a secret, while Goossens jewellery charts constellations across skin. This is fashion as a landscape, a tactile geography shaped by human hands.
Style that travels
The campaign also reads like a travelogue. Twin-tone cardigans, sculpted knitwear, oversized travel bags — all whisper of motion. But the journey here is not only physical. It’s a shift across aesthetics, cultures, materials.
Chanel draws visual inspiration from the lacquered Coromandel screens that lined Mademoiselle’s apartment. Their dreamy panoramas echo in the silhouettes, and in the collection’s dominant shade: a deep, meditative black.
“This is a journey — not only across space, but from one craft to another, from one visual code to the next,” — Chanel reflects.
Heritage as a living language
There are no direct quotes from the archive — and yet, the collection is filled with echoes. A coat becomes a moving screen. Over-the-knee boots leave their mark in a mirrored image. This is how Chanel speaks to the present — not by repeating the past, but by reimagining its spirit.
Because legacy isn’t something to preserve behind glass. It’s something to move through — like water, like fabric, like thought.
