5 Styling Tricks We’re Taking Away from Chanel’s Cool Girl Manual

When the going gets tough, Chanel’s fashion week presentations get us going. In the past, we’ve been onboard a trip to the future, a space station, ancient Greece, the Eiffel tower, a train station – to name a few at the top of our heads. This season, the show’s backdrop riffed off of Tinseltown’s most iconic fixture – the Hollywood sign. The maison’s name in towering, block alphabets framed the scene for its Spring/Summer 2021 showing. Fittingly, just as we would stream a movie, we caught the show’s live showing on our screens at home.

“This collection is a tribute to the muses of the House. Some of them are far away, it’s been a long time since we saw them. Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld dressed so many actresses in films and in real life. I was thinking about them who make us dream so much. But without wanting to replicate. Without falling into a vintage citation,” explained Virginie Viard in the collection’s official release.

On-screen and off, Chanel has dressed some of Tinseltown’s most fawned over heroines. From Grace Kelly to Marilyn Monroe, prominent sirens of the silver screen have shared history with Gabrielle Chanel herself or Karl Largerfeld. With the yesteryears as a visual standpoint, Viard looked back on the oversized silhouette of the ’80s, pedal pushers, and unitards. Albeit borrowed from the past, Viard’s vision propelled the collection into the future. Dressed in pastel short suits, chain belts slung across the waist, and micro bags worn as necklaces instead, Viard’s leading ladies were a picture of ineffable cool.

This season, alongside the usual extensive shopping wishlist, we’ve also taken down copious notes on styling. Here, we take you through five.

#1 The belt and blazer combination 

Cinching in the waist with a belt instantly transforms a blazer by highlighting the shape of a woman’s body. Way back when Gabrielle Chanel introduced boxy utilitarian jackets that borrowed from menswear, she meant to liberate women from the traditional waist-binding silhouettes of womenswear then. We’ve come a long way. Reclaiming the feminine figure makes just as much of a powerful statement.

#2 Micro bags are better worn as necklaces

It’s a pointless argument debating just how useful a micro bag could be or how much you could fit inside. We can put it to bed once and for all – micro bags are not made to be functional. What they work better as are statement necklaces. Given that they’re just so adorable, there’s no reason to wear it anywhere else besides at the front and center of an outfit.

#3 Playing peekaboo at the sleeves

The devil is in the details. Rather than have your sleeve end where your blazer ends, create an additional visual dimension to the look by extending your shirt sleeve past the blazer. This also doubles up as your cheat sheet to elongate the arms.

#4 A playful take on traditional suiting

Girls just wanna have fun! Viard makes a case for swapping out traditional, austere suit pairings for playful alternatives. Take the cue from Viard’s short suits rendered in pastel pink – embellishments optional.

#5 Consider the fascinator

And we’ll never be royals, it don’t run in our blood – but surely, we can borrow from the regal dress code. When it gets too hot out for headgears of any sort, you can count on the fascinator to top off your outfits. Très chic!

  What To Read Next: Monogram Tights Give Summer’s Short Hemlines a New Lease of Life, Everything You Need to Know Abou the Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons Union and Brand to Know: Ding Yun Zhang | Cover Image: Qide Sim. All images: Chanel.