How the big names of luxury fell out of fashion

In vogue: Johnny Depp's daughter Lily-Rose
(Photo:short formal dresses)

The Grand Palais in Paris throbbed to Donna Summer’s 1977 disco hit ‘I Feel Love’ as two models strutted down the catwalk, one in a classic black Chanel boucle tweed skirt suit, the other in the same ensemble in white.

From the neck down, they were a picture of timeless elegance – if only the sinister robot masks didn’t make them look like extras from Star Wars.

Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s octogenarian creative director is famous for his catwalk shows. Even by the standards of Planet Fashion, they are as whimsical as they are spectacular and last month’s show for spring-summer 2017 was no exception.

The German-born designer is so obsessed with technology he owns about 30 iPads including one for his cat, Choupette. Accordingly, he’d taken over the magnificent Beaux Arts building near the banks of the Seine and decked it out as a data storage centre.

Seated on the front row, along with American singer Usher, was Lily-Rose Depp, the 17-year-old daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, who is the face of Chanel’s new scent, No5 L’Eau.

Delve beneath the surface, however, and all is far from well at Chanel.

A year after the Bataclan terrorist outrage, wealthy tourists are reluctant to visit the French capital and its grand couture houses. But it’s not just Paris.

Other leading global luxury businesses, including Prada and Ralph Lauren, have also been facing difficult times.

The market is so tough for top-end fashion retailers that industry commentators have called it ‘luxury Armageddon’.

Political and economic upheaval makes even super-rich shoppers less confident and less inclined to spend.

Unlike its couture creations, Chanel’s latest figures are not pretty. The latest documents filed to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange reveal sales revenues dropped by 17pc to £5bn last year. Profits were down by nearly a quarter to £1.3bn.

This will have caused grave consternation at the headquarters in Paris.

The fashion empire is privately owned by reclusive billionaire brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, grandsons of couturiere Coco Chanel’s original business partner. It does not deign to elaborate on its financial position.

But trouble has clearly been brewing for some time. Earlier this year, the company’s American-born boss, Maureen Chiquet, at the helm for nine years, resigned over ‘strategic differences’.Read more at:long formal dresses

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