PARIS • Legendary designer and bibliophile Karl Lagerfeld made a pitch for immortality on Tuesday by setting his very Parisian Chanel haute couture show in front of the Academie Francaise.
The venerable institution, whose members are known as "the immortals", was the backdrop of the spectacular set of the banks of the Seine that Lagerfeld had built inside the Grand Palais in the French capital.
Everything, from the bouquinistes' stands with their vintage Vogue magazines and books eulogising Chanel to the Paris pavements and lamp posts, was re-created in staggeringly realistic detail.
All it lacked to pass for the real thing was the tourist tat and a few beggars.
Lagerfeld even roped in his godsons Hudson and Jameson Kroenig to play riverside booksellers along with their father, the square-jawed American model Brad Kroenig. All, of course, were dressed in Chanel.
Lagerfeld told reporters later that he can see the Quai Voltaire and the academies that act as the guardians of French culture from his windows.
At 84, the Kaiser is now too old to be admitted into any of the august bodies housed below the gilded dome of Institut de France.
In fact, he is nearly a decade over the age limit to be a sage, yet the Germany-born designer shows no signs of slowing with two haute couture shows in two days - with another for Fendi yesterday.
Despite appearing doddery on his feet recently, there was almost a spring in his step as he took the bow for a classily restrained autumn/ winter haute couture collection marked by slit dresses and sleeves.
"Karl is as fresh as a bridegroom," Conde Nast maven Karina Dobrotvorskaya cooed on Instagram over her picture of him with his "bride", the traditional finale of couture shows.
The pale green two-piece dress, inspired by the olive leaf motif worn by academicians, was worn by South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, who also opened the last Chanel Cruise show.
Like the Dior show the previous day, Lagerfeld went for a refined sobriety of sharply-cut black and grey slit dresses, worn over short thigh-riding miniskirts.
Many were lit up by flashes of crystals, feathers and glittery-edged embroidery, which pointed up the zipped slit arms.
With Spanish actress Penelope Cruz and South Korean heart-throb Han Hyo-joo in the front row with singers Lily Allen and Pharrell Williams, Lagerfeld often paired black with silver, giving nostalgic touches a metallic futuristic edge.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
