Here in South Africa going barefoot isn’t the furthest thing from being civilised, but is it fashionable? Karl Lagerfeld and the legendary team at Chanel seem to think so.
Most of us have already fallen in love with the new Chanel campaign featuring the Brazilian beauty, Gisele Bűndchen, recently announced the world’s highest paid model for the eighth year in a row. For her second successful campaign with the Parisian fashion house, Gisele was seen posing her exposed toes at some of the greatest landmarks in Paris, such as the Café de Flore and the love-lock bridge whilst donning the drool-inducing new Chanel collection.
The idea behind the campaign and the advertorial film we look forward to in our ad-breaks, focusses on the real women of today. Baz Luhrmann, the man behind the brilliance, says that fragrance ads are so often about something unattainable, but in this campaign the life behind the scenes and the star’s parental duties is what grounds it. Although the film’s star leads a life far from the norm, her own set of unique responsibilities represents the balancing act we all undergo on a day-to-day basis as she struggles to harmonise her personal life, her work, her role as mother and her relationship. All of this to the musical backdrop of Lo-Fang’s recreation of an all-time classic, You’re the one that I want, from the Grease film.
The fashion shoot itself, shot by Lagerfeld, features greyscale photographs, presenting their Spring/Summer collection throughout an after dark promenade, which really allows the modernity and easygoing quality of the silhouette to shine through.
The fact that super model Gisele Bűndchen is barefoot, however, can only be left to interpretation. It appears as though the fashion shoot wishes to ground our ideals of the perfect woman- the real woman- the Chanel woman. “That’s what I love most about Chanel- it comes from an actual person and the things that were real to her. She, Coco Chanel, really changed fashion. What is the difference between the Chanel woman then and now?” asks Luhrmann.
The perfect woman is not the flawless image of printed perfection that we once thought. The perfect woman is the one in the mirror. The one that moves to the music. The one with a story to tell about challenges and victory. The wanted one. The one that you are.
Perhaps as part of our new year’s resolutions we must reconsider our perceptions of the ideal woman and cast aside the “drop-a-dress-size” classics to make room for the little things – like going barefoot.
