Highlights from CHANEL’s Métiers d’art show in Senegal

The fashion house staged a three-day programme of events in Dakar.
By Amy de Klerk

This week saw CHANEL stage its annual Métiers d’art show, which took place in Dakar, Senegal, bringing the fashion world to the country not just for a catwalk presentation but for a three-day programme of events that had been in the works for years. “Going beyond the runway show, it’s the event as a whole that I took into account,” said creative director Virginie Viard of the project. “We’ve been thinking about it for three years. I wanted it to happen gently, over several days of deep, respectful dialoguing.”

The fashion house worked with students, journalists, fashion editors, creatives, artists, designers and personalities from the country to explore the worlds of fashion, cinema, dance, literature, contemporary art and music. “Going to Dakar means engaging in a dialogue with the country that welcomes us,” CHANEL explained, adding: “The honour bestowed upon us must go hand in hand with concrete actions in terms of creative dialogue, transmission of know-how and sustainable development.”

Part of this long-term collaboration between CHANEL and Senegal involves the choice of show venue, the former Palais de Justice in Dakar, which will also play host to an exhibition this coming January, one which will later be presented at CHANEL 19M gallery in Paris.

This week’s catwalk event drew in a number of high-profile names, including Naomi Campbell and Pharrell Williams, while the collection nodded to the 1970s with its prints, silhouettes, statement collars and platform heels. “The beating heart of Virginie Viard’s imagination, a Seventies spirit, traverses the collection. The pop soul-funk-disco-punk decade with its fascinating freedom, symbolised by an explosion of energy, is embodied by a jubilant woman.”

Scroll through to see highlights from the catwalk and the front row.