A world of color begins to melt as quickly as fabric might drop from the mountaintop of a woman’s bust. As the figure waltzes through the land of sown rumors, the wings of the wind fly through saturated leaves of palm trees that are refrained from swaying, not disturb the arrival of entitlement, she who dresses in Chanel, with all her luggage of brought distraught. The short fashion film, directed and produced by Karl Lagerfeld, The Tale of a Fairy, is a reflection of the entangled complexities of envy, solitude, and validation, explored through a luxurious and elegant collection of women’s wear. The narrative format communicates an awareness of the language of design, like a visual scrapbook elevated to loosen the corset and release the modern woman.
Lagerfeld has created a visual reference upon which to reminisce past times, utilizing the themes of money, youth and beauty, as objects that entertain the fantasy of a revenge that lead to one’s self defeat. Enters a black limousine, as if mistakenly driving onto the set of the 1955, Alfred Hitchcock movie, To Catch a Thief, breaking the concentration of the silent front, lined by tree trunks and a passageway into the scandalous world of stolen romance. With three restless heiresses fighting for the attention to be recognized amongst their lonely thrones, the true sense of refinement is unknown, as they cry mercy to the fairy teller who disappears like ‘the cat,’ when distraction fills the atmosphere, just long enough to rob each room of its riches and jewels, leaving all a mockery of fools.
The party had only just begun, when the breeze let in a genderless looking fairy, who clapped her magic hands, and transformed the generation duh into generation oh la la, where the gals and jets fell right upon Chanel’s address, and black and white devoured the night. In the context of this tale of fashion, the damsels’ in distress do not possess the fun games of Auntie Mame, therefore remained unable to exchange with the emotions of life used to decorate the penciled figures of imagined patterns, an ensemble made to project the confidence upon the female frame. From the ballroom, to the casino, the youth follows the flooded pockets of their host’s guilty pleasures, while one Madame takes a moment in the privacy of her bathroom, faced with her reflection in the mirror, her confidant of ravishing illusions. The fragmented cinematic capture of her erotic acquaintance fades into her dark main, fogging the viewer’s vision; perhaps a dream or just a feeling, the line of truth is left to be determined.
The gamble and the spill of money focuses on the number that might best hold tight onto the rolling shape of white, but only one will hear the whisper that will bring future delight. The struggle of satisfaction doesn’t end here, as the three women reunite at morning light, left to glimmer upon accentuated shades of the Cruise Collection, still obsessing over the wins and losses of the previous night.
To the beach, they all retreat, to demonstrate the stereotypical femme agée who spoils herself with her jeune jouet, while the other wanders about the mysterious fée, as she sits surrounded by a flock of youth– a campaign add that Bruce Weber might fabricate.
The plot flushes away through empty erotic exchange, leaving no possibility for evolution, and leaving one with the conclusion that the feelings have loose meaning within the particular fantasy, but can still exist in the creation of a tactile reality. Perhaps the action of women’s’ physical interaction has no necessary purpose quite yet, but could develop further into a useful point. But as of now, the truth somehow, is that each creation of Chanel’s, restores elegance and class, a luxury that leaves amused the mystery that will decorate femininity with undying youth and beauty. A contemporary fairytale that cannot be looked past; Chanel is made to last.
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This Friday July 26, 2013 The La Jolla Fashion Film Festival presents the world's first Karl Lagerfeld Fashion Film Retrospective
