Chanel Métiers D’Art 2025: The Beauty of Hangzhou, Celebrated Through French Craftsmanship

The French luxury brand’s latest fashion show took place in China’s famous West Lake—highlighting a special connection to founder Coco Chanel

Liu Wen opened the Chanel Métiers d’Art 2025 fashion show, staged at the West Lake in Hangzhou

For Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2025 fashion show, held in Hangzhou, the maison did not have to rely on spectacular sets or larger-than-life personalities to spark a sense of awe. That was all taken care of by the location of the show: the West Lake, which for centuries has inspired major works of literature, poetry, and art in Chinese culture.

It turns out that the West Lake once inspired Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, too. The French fashion designer lavished her famed Paris apartment on Rue Cambon with Coromandel screens from the 17th- and 18th-century. She even once exclaimed, “I would faint with happiness when I walked into a Chinese art dealer and saw a Coromandel.”

One such lacquered screen—and the largest in Chanel’s collection—covered the walls of her private office with an image of the West Lake, reproduced in vivid detail with all its bridges and pagodas. That Coromandel screen is featured in Wim Wenders’s new film, commissioned by Chanel; in the film, the screen sets the actress Tilda Swinton off on a journey to Hangzhou. It’s a journey that Gabrielle Chanel never made herself, although one can easily imagine that she would have liked to, given how many elements of Chinese culture permeated the interior design of her home, and informed her fashion creations in the ’50s and ’60s.

The allure of Chanel’s Coromandel screen was also imparted upon the tweed suits, coats, and evening dresses that were unveiled at the Chanel Métiers d’Art 2025 fashion show. The show was held at night, which imbued the tranquil West Lake with an air of mystery, and the collection with cinematic drama. As models walked along the lake’s meandering wooden bridges, they cast mesmerising reflections in the dark water.

The fashion show opened with Chinese supermodel Liu Wen clad in a sweeping coat cut from glittering black tweed—the starry night sky rendered in cloth. The coat’s long, fluid silhouette was seen again on lace and tweed dresses, which were fitted with pagoda sleeves and mandarin collars.

Those details, borrowed from historical Chinese clothing, add sophistication to the pieces in the collection. They were also used to refresh the silhouette of Chanel’s iconic tweed jacket. Some tweed jackets were cut with layered panels that were stacked like the roofs of a pagoda.

The tweed suits came in colours like pink and sky blue, lifted from Gabrielle Chanel’s treasured Coromandel screens. Also from those screens: motifs of lotus flowers and birds, which were embroidered, with rich detail, onto dresses, jackets and skirt suits. They also appeared on body-hugging jumpsuits that peeked out from under those skirt suits.

Even the lacquer of Chanel’s Coromandel screens was referenced: coats, long skirts and thigh-high boots came in glossy patent leather, adding a seductive edge to the collection. Many of the collection’s pieces are made to come to life at night, like the blouses and dresses crafted from shimmering lacquered lace; or the black dresses trimmed with metallic embroidery; or the slip dress cut from glorious, golden foil leather. Gabrielle Chanel, a Leo, would probably have approved of that last ensemble.

Coco Chanel would have also appreciated the latter half of the collection, which featured satin dresses, flowing pleated skirts and quilted jackets trimmed with faux fur. These evening ensembles are easy yet glamorous—much like the flapper ensembles that the French designer famously created and styled with her signature strands of pearls. For the collection’s accessories, Chanel’s design studio has traded those white pearls for deep red and black ones—making for a dramatic statement.

Even without a creative director at the helm of Chanel, the maison’s essence is strongly felt in its Métiers d’Art 2025 fashion show. That is because the Métiers d’Art collections are dedicated to showcasing the fine craftsmanship that comes out of Chanel’s creativity hub, Le19M, in Paris. The building is home to 11 maisons in all. That includes both Atelier Montex and Lesage, which created the elaborate embroidery seen throughout this collection using historic techniques; Lemarié and Lognon, which are responsible for the precise pleats in the collection’s closing looks; and Massaro, the maison that crafted Gabrielle Chanel’s favourite two-tone shoes, as well as the covetable leather shoes seen in the collection.

Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2025 fashion show is very much a celebration of French craftsmanship—which is just as awe-inspiring as the natural wonders found in the heart of Hangzhou. Below, see the standout looks from the show.