Chanel to stage next Métiers d’Art show in Manchester

Chanel will stage its next Métiers d’Art show in December in Manchester, the latest stop in this unique collection’s annual tour of the planet, which has previously taken to Tokyo, Strasbourg, Rome New York and Shanghai.

The house did not reveal the exact location of the show in Manchester, a northern English city which built its wealth on the cotton and textile industry in the 19th century.
 
The Parisian fashion house revealed Wednesday that it will unveil the 2023/24 Métiers d’art collection on Thursday December 7, 2023 in Manchester, the brand’s first show in England since an Amy Winehouse inspired ‘Paris-Londres’ collection by Karl Lagerfeld back in December 2009.

Though Karl did subsequently show an epic Mary Stuart Métiers d’art collection in Scotland, staged at the Linlithgow Castle outside Edinburgh in December 2013.
 
Partly due to covid, his successor Virginie Viard kept her initial Métiers d’art shows in Paris, before surprising the fashion world by jetting to Dakar last year for an innovative Métiers d’art moment staged in a contemporary art institute.

“Every year since 2002, Chanel has been the only house to create a collection dedicated to celebrating the savoir-faire of the Métiers d’art and their central importance to fashion, today and tomorrow,” Chanel noted in its release.
 
Since it was first invented two decades ago, Métiers d’art has remained a one-of-a-kind collection, blending elements of haute couture, luxury ready-to-wear and rarefied craftmanship. Chanel has even constructed a whole new division entitled Paraffection which groups over a score of specialists artisan suppliers it has acquired, many of them now housed in the giant 19M building in north Paris.

“Presented in cities and places that inspire the house, from Tokyo to New York, via Dakar last year, this collection bears witness to the historic commitment of Chanel to this exceptional artisanal heritage and its influence around the world,” the house added in a release.
 
Chanel did not reveal the reasoning behind the move to the UK, though the brand’s founder Coco Chanel was an avid fan of all things English. She was the lover of the Duke of Westminster for over a decade and frequently hunted and fished in his giant estate in Scotland and at Easton Hall, a family home southwest of Manchester.