Chanel’s Métiers d’art 2022-2023 collection shows for the first time in Dakar

The Chanel Métiers d’Art 2022- 2023 collection

Infused with a seventies spirit, the Métiers d’Art 2022-2023 collection designed by Virginie Viard, the house’s artistic director since 2019, unfolds in long and narrow coats, asymmetrical dresses, tight and flared trousers, platform shoes, and puffy sweaters, available in multicolored tweeds, raw denims, and airy fabrics. This wardrobe is enhanced by myriads of plant patterns, geometric lines and shapes, camellia embroideries, intertwined beads, jewel buttons, dazzling sequins, sparkling tassels, as well as coated and pleated black or white lace.

The fashion show was rich in artistic performances. For instance, the École des Sables, an international training and creation center for traditional and contemporary African dances founded by Germaine Acogny, the choreographer of the Slow Show Dimitri Chamblas, and the singer Obree Daman, accompanied by his choir and DBN Gogo’s music, took part in the event. Lastly, both director Ladj Ly with the Kourtrajmé Montfermeil school and the Dakar school filmed the genesis of the collection in Paris and the preparation of the show in Dakar.

A Chanel Métiers d’Art fashion show in Dakar

An influential capital on the international art scene, the Senegalese city of Dakar is home to an incredible creative effervescence in fashion, cinema, dance, literature, contemporary art, and music. This year, for a Métiers d’Art show that pays tribute to the craftsmen – including feather makers, glove makers, embroiderers, boot makers, folders – whose know-how has been preserved by the French fashion house since 1985, Chanel has organized a three- day cultural program in the Senegalese metropolis from December 5th to December 7th, 2022.

In collaboration with the IFAN (Fundamental Institute of Black Africa), the house will then initiate creative dialogues with Senegalese personalities to celebrate the richness and diversity of embroidery and weaving trades in a program open to all for several months, starting on January 2023 at the Galerie du 19M. “Beyond the fashion show itself, I’ve considered the event as a whole. We’ve been thinking about it for three years. I wanted it to go smoothly, and over several days of deep, respectful exchanges”, Virginie Viard confides. “The former courthouse in Dakar, where the show and a major part of the associated artistic program take place, is one of the most beautiful places in which we have been given the opportunity to present a collection. It was an obvious choice, and a source of inspiration.”