Paris, 5 October: The first thing I thought about when I saw the Chanel SS22 show yesterday was a poster from my local hairdressers. The hair salon that was neatly sequestered above the local shop in my estate; a place where four or five-year-old me would while away an afternoon as my mum’s roots cooked gently under foil meche. The poster was an ad for Revlon and it was peak 1990s. In it, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford posed in matching red knits. Their hair was bouffant, their figures buxom, their (naturally) crimson lips curved into a smile, reminding us that, ‘The most unforgettable women use Revlon.’

Nostalgia is King

This is likely not what designer Virginie Viard had in mind when she artfully curated the Chanel spring 2022 show at Paris Fashion Week yesterday, but I’m so glad it has echoes of that memory. To put it in Gen Z speak, there’s something about this Chanel show that hits different. Yes, there was jaw-dropping swimwear, remixed tweeds and decadent dresses: all staples you’ve come to expect from Chanel — non? 

A New Mood

But there was something else that’s being discussed by critics and fans at large. Largely, a sense of fun with a capital F. In essence, the show was a tribute to 80s and 90s catwalk culture. The nostalgic ideal of a catwalk show fashion had long forgotten and we didn’t realise we’d been longing for.

There was strutting, hips-forward walking, twirls. Hell, there was smiling. Laughter! At the end of the raised runway, a mosh-pit of photographers clambered to get the shot as each girl worked the camera with increasing zest. It reads like (and I mean this with utmost sincerity) a fashion show from the movies, not the straight-faced Paris Fashion Week we’ve come to know and expect.

Tilting the Lens

The backdrop of campaign images, shot by Inez & Vinoodh (who also curated the below video, shot on Fujifilm XT3), showed a roll-call of It models going behind the lens as photographers. You could interpret it as a moment of empowerment; letting the models go behind the lens, granting them a sense of control. Or perhaps it’s a comment on the voyeuristic world we all live in today? Either way, it spoke to great photographers of fashion past: Steven Miesel, Peter Lindbergh, Arthur Elgort, Ellen Von Unwerth, Herb Ritz. A time when these image makers were rockstars and influencer hadn’t made it to Urban Dictionary.

Joy is in Vogue

It’s not unusual for fashion to mine the past in uncertain times; a sense of familiarity breeds comfort, a promise of it’s-all-going-to-come-good if we just stomp down the runway in exuberant, joyful clothing. Virginie Viard reached for nostalgia, by the bucket load. “I used to love the sound of flashbulbs going off at the shows in the 80s,” she said in the show notes. “I wanted to recapture that emotion.”

See all 71 looks at Chanel.com and watch a video of the show below.