Chanel has always been a symbol of timeless elegance, with its pieces gracefully aging into vintage treasures and looking equally chic on a puberty fille or her grandmother. With that in mind, one can’t deny that Mr. Lagerfeld took Chanel woman on a blooming journey through the years. Remember the delightful eye-pleasers from the 1990s?

Oh how I miss the supermodels with their feminine yet ultra confident attitude… Last year, Kaiser Karl tried to bring that fun-loving quality back into Chanel’s world. To refresh your memory, Resort 2011 collection reflected the 1970s party atmosphere and was set by the ultimate people-watching spot – Le Sénéquier café in Saint Tropez with models arriving on motorboats and Georgia May Jagger with Sebastien Jondeau pulling up on a motorcycle to a Rolling Stones soundtrack.

Although Chanel Resort 2012 runway much like last season’s took place on the French Riviera, it had a dramatically different vibe. Held at the prestigious Hotel du Cap of Cap d’Antibes, the show began as the sun was setting, shedding a pink light over a pale-blue sea. “This is the time of day when you can tell real diamonds from fake,” Lagerfeld observed “and here, they are real.” The new Chanel woman is mature and a lot more sophisticated than her playful St. Tropez predecessor. Her bling are the real diamonds and pearls, but she no longer is a “pretty woman” playing nice to score a Classic Flap from her wealthy boyfriend. She is capricious madame, who tries to impress no one, dresses to please herself and makes no excuses for her oddities or whimsical behaviour. This is what her wardrobe looks like:

While we can sense a degree of extravagance, papa Karl says: “Too much may not be enough.”

by Olga Titarenko