By Liana Satenstein, Staff Writer
Instead of using a bare runway as he had in the past, Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld showcased his 2010 collection with a more pastoral theme: a barn. The rustic backdrop along with lamb-faced models in classic Chanel blazers connoted an air of simplicity and innocence, untouched by sordid city life. Yet the coaxing smiles, white tights and clogs, insinuated a very different tone from the awkward pigeon-toed models.
One model walked in only a white, embroidered jacket with puffed sleeves and a red belt across her waist, looking like a very expensive and suggestive milkmaid. The tights, with crosshatch designs streaming up the shins and garter-esque stitching on the upper thigh, were paired with high-heeled clogs.
Lagerfeld also played with lace, layering it on short skirts and blazers. Aside from bare-shouldered white dresses, there were flashes of red, black and tan. There was a red suit with puffed sleeves, black A-line tweed dresses, and a lot of sheer drapery that revealed almost the whole lower body. There was an innocent looking sweater set, including a skirt, embroidered with red and blue flowers, but the flushed cheeks and towering heels permeated the concept with unchaste suspicions.
Overall, Lagerfeld’s intentions of an angelic landscape and bucolic countryside did not affect the theme of the collection. It served rather as a sly contrast, a ploy that pushed the theme closer to Nabokov’s Lolita and further from Little Bo Peep.