Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky opens with the fierce and furious premiere of the Russian composer's The Rite of Spring in a Paris concert hall in 1913. The audience's animated response does not stop at catcalls and walkouts: The muscular ballet, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and pulsing with dissonance, literally starts a riot. Director Jan Kounen stages and shoots this momentous event with sweep and vigor. It's an extraordinary beginning, and while the rest of the film is decidedly less so, it's difficult not to be captivated by the storm-tossed romance that follows - and by the lush elegance surrounding it all. Starring Anna Mouglalis, straight-backed, elegant, and confident, as the preternaturally chic designer (and formidable businesswoman)

With a theme like "Springtime in Paris," the 2011 Philadelphia International Flower Show wouldn't be complete without a nod to fashion. "When you dream about Paris, what are the images that pop in your head?" asked Sam Lemheney, the show's designer. "For me, it's food, wine, the Eiffel Tower, and fashion. " So organizers planned two stylish exhibits for the show that runs until Sunday, as well as something Flower Show-goers could take home. The first exhibit, "Boîtes de Fleurs à la Mode," is a floral shout-out to the grande dame of French fashion, Coco Chanel.

PARIS — What do a supermodel and a 79-year-old former French first lady have in common? Chanel haute couture. The unlikely pairing of Laetitita Casta and Bernadette Chirac was seen at Karl Lagerfeld's strong and varied fall-winter 2012 show Tuesday, aptly titled "New Vintage. " Their presence showed the unique and enduring allure of 100-year-old Chanel. Lagerfeld — Chanel's designer since 1983 — is still at the top of his game, presenting a show that modernized the company's fashion archive.

This summer's vintage-inspired looks are prolific with pleats. And although we parted ways with the folded fashion staple back in the ‘80s, we shouldn't be surprised they're returning. After all, as women's wardrobes return to dressier, yet simple flapper-style silhouettes, it was only a matter of time before contemporary designers found ways to fold pleats — accordion, box, knife, and organ — into our wardrobes again. "They can make anyone look sophisticated and ladylike," said Candice Caprice, owner of Per Lei Boutique in Media, who could cite pieces with pleats from nearly every designer this spring, from Trina Turke to Diane von Furstenberg.

Karl Lagerfeld, the world's high-fashion heavyweight champion, entered the fall ready-to-wear arena yesterday, aiming to prove that his dominance of the industry is indisputable. Ignoring the reservations of retail buyers and some fashion writers, the ever headstrong Lagerfeld came out swinging for the Chanel collection with a line that did not feature any hemlines above the knee. From hip-hugging leather skirts to fluid knit dresses and light-as-a-cloud chiffon skirts, Lagerfeld's hemlines grazed the ankles.

As surely as the great Coco Chanel reinvented the "little black dress," giving it a chic that has lived to this day, Karl Lagerfeld in his spring collection for Chanel yesterday redefined the use of leggings and their cousin, biker shorts. Lagerfeld took the classic Chanel brightly colored jacket and combined it with black biker shorts and black leggings. This meeting of the Chanel elegance and the Lycra craze means two things: Lagerfeld is trying to bring a youthful touch to the rarely changing Chanel look.

The old charm of Coco Chanel's clothes from the 1930s swept back into style yesterday, thanks to Karl Lagerfeld. His Chanel spring ready-to-wear collection was a nostalgic glance backward to the chic seaside resorts of Deauville and Biarritz 50 years ago when fashionable women paraded around in long pleated skirts, loose, flowing trousers, simple cardigans and flat shoes - almost all in combinations of navy and white. It was a very soft, languid, classic collection that had none of the sexy, snappy little flourishes that Lagerfeld has been doing for so many seasons to jazz up the house's sedate image.

Recalling the history of fashion in this century, Mary Schnabel remembered when women revolted against the dictates of fashion designers. "In 1947, it was an unbelievable thing when (Christian Dior) dropped the skirt length seven inches. . . . I think women just decided this was crazy, to let someone in Paris tell (them) what length their skirts would be," Schnabel, of Rosemont, said of hemline lengths that made shorter dresses out of fashion overnight. "After that happened, women just put their foot down and said, 'No more,' " she said.

NEW YORK - This year's New York Fashion Week ended on a decidedly flapperish note. Designers dotted their collections with cloches, menswear styling, plush furs, and velvet gowns with a chicness that hasn't been appreciated since the Roaring Twenties. Maybe it's the subliminal influence of HBO's hit Boardwalk Empire . Coincidentally, I ran into the show's Michael Kenneth Williams in front of Lincoln Center this week. Or it could be fashion's constant preoccupation with everything Coco Chanel - right now we are in an early-Chanel phase, focusing on the corset-free, pared-down looks Chanel introduced to women in the mid-teens, forever changing our style of dress.

It was a bleary-eyed fashion pack that assembled yesterday to view the collections of Chanel, Christian Dior and Hanae Mori - bleary-eyed because many had stayed well into the wee hours at a drag-queen ball thrown by New York City party priestess Suzanne Bartsch. The party followed a nonstop weekend of fall collections, including those of Romeo Gigli, Valentino, Issey Miyake, Claude Montana and Christian Lacroix. Bartsch's party was held at Les Bains Douches, a former bathhouse converted into a disco.

If Brad Pitt wants me to douse my body in Chanel No. 5, then I will - even if he barely makes sense. The world's iconic women's fragrance kicked off its latest advertising campaign last month with a 31-second commercial featuring gray-templed Pitt mumbling nonsense.   "It's not a journey," Pitt says (so serious!). "Every journey ends, but we go on. The world turns and we turn with it. Plans disappear. Dreams take over . . . . " Is this a 12th-grade sonnet class or a TV ad?

PARIS — What do a supermodel and a 79-year-old former French first lady have in common? Chanel haute couture. The unlikely pairing of Laetitita Casta and Bernadette Chirac was seen at Karl Lagerfeld's strong and varied fall-winter 2012 show Tuesday, aptly titled "New Vintage. " Their presence showed the unique and enduring allure of 100-year-old Chanel. Lagerfeld — Chanel's designer since 1983 — is still at the top of his game, presenting a show that modernized the company's fashion archive.

This summer's vintage-inspired looks are prolific with pleats. And although we parted ways with the folded fashion staple back in the ‘80s, we shouldn't be surprised they're returning. After all, as women's wardrobes return to dressier, yet simple flapper-style silhouettes, it was only a matter of time before contemporary designers found ways to fold pleats — accordion, box, knife, and organ — into our wardrobes again. "They can make anyone look sophisticated and ladylike," said Candice Caprice, owner of Per Lei Boutique in Media, who could cite pieces with pleats from nearly every designer this spring, from Trina Turke to Diane von Furstenberg.

NEW YORK - This year's New York Fashion Week ended on a decidedly flapperish note. Designers dotted their collections with cloches, menswear styling, plush furs, and velvet gowns with a chicness that hasn't been appreciated since the Roaring Twenties. Maybe it's the subliminal influence of HBO's hit Boardwalk Empire . Coincidentally, I ran into the show's Michael Kenneth Williams in front of Lincoln Center this week. Or it could be fashion's constant preoccupation with everything Coco Chanel - right now we are in an early-Chanel phase, focusing on the corset-free, pared-down looks Chanel introduced to women in the mid-teens, forever changing our style of dress.

With a theme like "Springtime in Paris," the 2011 Philadelphia International Flower Show wouldn't be complete without a nod to fashion. "When you dream about Paris, what are the images that pop in your head?" asked Sam Lemheney, the show's designer. "For me, it's food, wine, the Eiffel Tower, and fashion. " So organizers planned two stylish exhibits for the show that runs until Sunday, as well as something Flower Show-goers could take home. The first exhibit, "Boîtes de Fleurs à la Mode," is a floral shout-out to the grande dame of French fashion, Coco Chanel.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky opens with the fierce and furious premiere of the Russian composer's The Rite of Spring in a Paris concert hall in 1913. The audience's animated response does not stop at catcalls and walkouts: The muscular ballet, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and pulsing with dissonance, literally starts a riot. Director Jan Kounen stages and shoots this momentous event with sweep and vigor. It's an extraordinary beginning, and while the rest of the film is decidedly less so, it's difficult not to be captivated by the storm-tossed romance that follows - and by the lush elegance surrounding it all. Starring Anna Mouglalis, straight-backed, elegant, and confident, as the preternaturally chic designer (and formidable businesswoman)

Diana Ross finds herself in a pickle - again. The pop diva, who pleaded no contest to DUI last month, stemming from a December '02 arrest in Tucson, Ariz., is headed back to jail. Last month, Ross served a two-day sentence in Greenwich, Conn., where she lives. But, according to Tucson City Court Magistrate T. Jay Cranshaw, that does not satisfy her 48-hour sentence: Ross reportedly left and returned multiple times during her stay, and it turns out she spent only 47 hours in police custody.

Bosoms, bosoms everywhere. Bosoms bursting out of bra tops, bustiers and underwire jackets, or peeking through sheer gowns yesterday in the amazing Chanel show. Bosoms squeezing out of corsets, laced tank tops and halters in collections from young hands such as Chantal Thomass to old masters such as the great Valentino. Bosoms heaving under lace dresses and molded sheaths, bosoms practically poking through thin-as-Kleenex translucent clothes, or displayed to the world with plunging necklines, risque cutouts and jackets shown sans blouses.

Leave it to Karl Lagerfeld, the witty general of high fashion, to spoof the film that proposes to spoof haute couture. Lagerfeld opened his Paris conquest with his highly anticipated Chanel fall collection yesterday on a movie set complete with cameras from the silent film era, a director's chair with Coco Chanel's first name on it and a backdrop of the Louvre courtyard where the French designer shows were held until this year. The collections, which conclude today, are now held in new auditoriums in a mall under the museum's courtyard.

The tent was pitched, folding chairs filled with the faithful, temporary pulpit erected, gospel music prepared to wail and the powerful preacher waited in the wings. It was revival time in Paris yesterday. The Reverend (and often irreverent) Karl Lagerfeld sermonized the fashion flock with the spring scripture from the mighty church of Chanel. The gospel according to Lagerfeld: micro-miniskirts are back, boucle tweed is in, sheer is not sinful and denim is high fashion's new savior.