Chanel’s garden couture delights Paris celebrity guests

The Spring-Summer 2018 Haute Couture collection created by Karl Lagerfeld, revealed in an ephemeral garden under the vault of the Grand Palais. (Photo: CHANEL/Facebook)

PARIS — Rose scents mingled with celebrities including Marion Cotillard, Sofia Coppola and Rita Ora at Chanel’s couture display in Paris on Tuesday.

This season, designer showman Karl Lagerfeld recreated a verdant royal garden to showcase his bucolic creations.

Some highlights from Tuesday’s spring-summer 2018 shows:

CHANEL’S GARDEN COUTURE

Chanel’s fragrant garden featured architectural wooden arbors and myriad white roses — complete with a babbling water fountain.

Inspired by the geometric curves in the garden furniture, Lagerfeld went back to nature — and to Chanel’s couture roots — for a display of dramatic looks constructed with geometric detail.

The clothes were rich with soft floral embroidery and frothy looks in a pastel palette. Models including Cindy Crawford’s daughter Kaia Gerber wore sweet pink, white and purple posies in black tulle hair-pieces.

The devil’s in the detail and this season it’s all about the sleeve.

A raglan style — one that extends in one piece fully to the collar — seemed to inspire the beautiful and surreal arm shapes that descended stiffly like a tapered tube. Shoulders were wide and dramatically curved.

Full skirts flared out like giant bells in a crisp line shared this surreal quality.

Lagerfeld is an ambitious man, and elsewhere his 69 designs also channeled the tiered fashions of the swinging 1920s.

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DIOR’S MASKED BALL

Masked revelers danced into the early hours of Tuesday at the soiree event of couture week: Christian Dior’s surrealism-themed masked ball at the Rodin Museum.

Actress Monica Bellucci stepped out onto the checkered chess board set in a vivid red lace Dior gown, while model Bella Hadid stunned in a revealing black tulle shoulder less gown, hugging singer Courtney Love.

Guests in checkered face masks that sometimes impaired vision negotiated around giant 2-meter chess pieces, faceless dancing performers and hanging surrealist sculptures in the marquee venue that was also used to showcase the historic design house’s spring and summer couture styles.

A wall of white arms, some fake and some real (belonging to hidden performers), handed out white roses to passers-by who snacked on white chocolate playing cards served on a green poker table cover.

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ALEXIS MABILLE’S OLD-SCHOOL GLAMOUR

The red carpet said it all: French designer Alexis Mabille turned on the glamour for a display of classic couture gowns on Tuesday.

The styles were firmly set to the 1950s — the years following the austerity of World War II that produced long exuberant lengths of fabrics, hyper femininity and full hourglass silhouettes.

A floor-length satin gown in coral sported a retro giant floppy bow at the waist, while a dark cobalt gown with huge skirt had an abbreviated take on a fifties jacket as a bustier, and was paired with full length evening gloves.

A series of fun balloon gowns — with skirt hems gathered around inside — were the strongest pieces in the show.

Each skirt sported an even bigger explosion of fabric, until the show reached a dramatic crescendo in a circular bottle green gown that spread out from the bust.

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SWAROVSKI AT HOTEL DE CRILLON

No luxury detail was overlooked at the launch of Swarovski’s eyewear collection inside the revamped Hotel de Crillon, which reopened last year after a 200-million euro refurbishment.

Views of the sparkling Place de la Concorde delighted guests including model and actress Poppy Delevingne, socialite Olivia Palermo and Roman Polanski’s actress daughter Morgane Polanski.

The eyewear was displayed on stands and featured opulent use of crystal in architectural designs inspired by the Atelier Swarovski jewelry collections, which were also shown off at the event.

Guests then tucked into a lavish meal that included wine from the famous vineyard Chateauneuf-du-Pape.