Hasta La Ideas

Photo: Olivier Saillant for Chanel

For its 2014 Fall/Winter fashion show at Paris Fashion Week, Chanel turned the Grand Palais into the world’s glitziest supermarket complete with 500 Chanel-branded products in packaging designed specially for the show

At the Chanel Shopping Centre, sneaker-wearing supermodels – who have probably never set foot inside a real-life supermarket – strutted through the aisles pushing trolleys or carrying Chanel shopping baskets with leather and gold chain handles and the double C logo.

Photos: Olivier Saillant for Chanel

Seating was mocked-up to look like upturned supermarket cartons sealed with tape. The trolleys were equipped with Chanel tweed-covered locks, while the check-out sign featured a symbol of a Chanel customer wearing one of its trademark jackets.

Photo: ELLE France

Photos: Olivier Saillant for Chanel

The soundtrack was frequently interrupted by announcements of an in-store promotion on Noix de Coco (coconuts), or to say that a little girl was waiting for her mother at the checkout.

Chanel’s version of Pringles. Photo: ELLE France

Chanel won’t say who designed all the packaging but whoever it was had the dream-job of producing the complete Chanel-branded range of 500 products with over 100,000 mocked-up items on the shelves.

Photo: ELLE France

Photo: ELLE France

These included Jambon Cambon (the address of Chanel’s first boutique in Paris), Coco Pop cereal, Chanel N° 9 eggs (a pun on the French (n)oeufs = 9), Lait de Coco (coconut milk), Mademoiselle Cognac and Cocoquillettes pasta. The product range extended to Coco Carbone car oil, detergents, feather dusters and doormats.

Photo: ELLE France

Photo: ELLE France

Photo: ELLE France

“A supermarket is for everybody, the rich included,” said Chanel creative director Karl Largerfeld, generously. “It’s a modern approach to luxury. If you’re lucky enough to be able to buy these things, buy them, but don’t wear them to show how rich you are….The big thing in Chanel is that we can play with everything and do whatever we want. Nobody tells us what to do, we are totally free.” Which is nice.

Photo: ELLE France

Photo: ELLE France

Photo: ELLE France

Photo: ELLE France

Photo: ELLE France

The cheese counter, Chanel-style. Photo: ELLE France

Initially destined for a charity auction, the products were snatched off their shelves by avid fashionistas at the end of the show (check out the film here). A Chanel doormat with the legend ‘Mademoiselle, Privé’ was particularly in demand.

Many thanks to ELLE France for all the packaging images – see their story here