Channelling Coco
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday July 11, 2009
AUDREY TAUTOU might be able to make a cardigan jacket look sexy but not everyone can. Despite this, women the world over are scrambling as we speak to get their hands on cardigan jackets and boxy, boucle and tweed jackets made famous by Coco Chanel all those years ago.Blame it on Chanel-mania. The pioneering French designer is currently the subject of two film biopics. One, Coco Avant Chanel, starring Tautou as a young Coco, opened just a couple of weeks ago.And Coco Chanel And Igor Stravinsky, about the designer's brief affair with the Russian composer, opens later this year. A television movie, starring Shirley MacLaine as the legendary designer, also screened in the US last year, while Karl Lagerfeld made his own short silent film about her.It is not surprising then that Chanel-inspired garments in particular, her much-copied signature jackets, typically collarless and with contrast trims are making a comeback.At the haute couture shows in Paris in January, Lagerfeld used a giant replica of a Chanel cardigan jacket, made from wood and painted to resemble concrete, as the back drop to his show, which featured several classic boucle cardigan jackets.It was a stunt that put the classic Chanel jacket first designed back in 1925 firmly back in the fashion spotlight even before the Coco film feast began.For people like me, who find boucle cardigan jackets about as sexy as twin sets and pearls, there is some good news. Rather than teaming them with matching skirts, flesh-coloured stockings and Mary Janes, as they once did, this season women are wearing their Chanel-look jackets with skinny jeans and pants for a more seductive take on the wardrobe classic.Other designers are also giving jackets a contemporary twist. While many still come in boucle, checks and tweeds, others are fashioning their collarless jackets, complete with contrast and braided trims, from edgier fabrics, such as glossy satins. Zimmermann have whipped up a version in black satin with a gold chain edging. Others, including Portmans and Bettina Liano, are cropping jackets high above the hip to create a look that makes reference to the boxy Chanel silhouette without looking like something your great aunt might wear to bingo.STOCKISTS Anna Thomas (03) 9429 2200 Portmans 1800 650 600 White Suede (03) 9429 7703 Zimmermann 1800 738 895
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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