Fashion Week Handbags: Chanel

I don’t always love what Chanel shows, but I almost always adore the great length to which Karl Lagerfeld goes to show it. Few people in fashion are capable of envisioning a great spectacle in the way that he does for his over-the-top presentations, and they’re consistently a pleasure to watch, whether or not you enjoy the clothes.

Chanel’s presentation at Paris Fashion Week involved the importation of giant chunks of an iceberg from from Scandinavia, and the models splashed down the runway in appropriate cold-weather attire. Well, it was as appropriate as Chanel gets – there were several of what only can be accurately called Wookie suits, plus lots of other arctic attire in messy, frayed brown tweeds and faux fur (that’s right, all the fur in this show was fake).

About a third of the way into the show, the clothing got a little more wearable and some of the bags got seriously pretty. My personal favorites were the icebox clutches – although they may have not been the most practical bags shown (I think that award goes to the furry, tweedy backpacks), they were the ones that most accurately captured the frozen feeling of the collection and will probably make fantastic collector’s items in the future. On the whole, ome of the bags were bizarre, but if you can get past the faux fur then there was some beauty to behold.

Photos via Style.com.