Oh the Grand Palais for the grand defilé. It is the most extraordinary building with heavy nineteenth century glass and iron engineering supporting the spanned roof built for the era of the great exhibitions. On ground level we were surrounded by art with a capital A. Actually the prolific Mr Lagerfeld was the the "artist" behind this big fashion art exhibition. The seventy five very large pieces of sculpture and 3d paintings, each based on some iconic aspect of Chanel, were given as drawings and maquettes to his studio to make. Are we seeing another transformation of the Chanel studio, perhaps Damien Hirst's? One sculpture used the lid of a Number 5 perfume bottle as the head of a giant steel robot, or how about the very minimalist ribbons falling off a white canvas evoking the Chanel black and white packaging. Enough of these works were made to fill this enormous space with a backdrop for the girls to walk past. The section where I sat was minimalist white and pale grey and the perfect foil for the rich tweedy textures. Oh good the tweeds were back with a vengeance and they always go down well with everyone as they are the essence of Chanel. You cannot possibly have them without the pearls of course, which he oversized into headphones worn as necklaces. A great mix of other fabrics with the signature tweeds, chic leather wide legged sailor pants in pastel makeup colours, heavy duty cotton backpacks "sprayed" with graffiti and black lace. He transformed other Chanel classics like piping and edging which became bold enough to be pop art and the prints which resembled a colour chart linked directly to Gerhard Richter. Let's not forget the slightly masculine touch of falling down ribbed ankle socks which was the best joke of the season. It was a great pleasure to see luxury on such a grand scale, ninety two models, presents and about two thousand of us watching after drinking fruit art cocktails. Oh the art of being Mr Lagerfeld. See Pictures from the show Review & Photography Antonia Leslie Chanel

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