Chanel Takes on Balletcore For Spring/Summer 2024 Haute Couture
In celebration of 100 years since Coco Chanel’s first designs for ballet, Chanel's Spring/Summer 2024 Haute Couture collection is a tribute to dance-inspired fashion.
Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2024 Haute Couture show, “The Button,” is centered around an iconic Chanel code—the button. Recognized as a symbol of emancipation, the button takes center stage as a jewel-like element that, revered by Coco Chanel, historically helped women move more freely. With this, the set, collaboratively designed by Kendrick Lamar, Dave Free, and Mike Carson, featured a giant button with Chanel’s distinctive double C logo on the ceiling.
The Spring/Summer 2024 Haute Couture collection showcased an interplay of tulle, embroidery, and tweed, emphasizing the softness and femininity synonymous with Chanel. Romantic motifs like high collars, billowing skirts, and lace adorned garments, creating a landscape of long dresses, jumpsuits, skirts, and capes embellished with coquettish details. The collection, influenced by the world of dance, showcased ensembles typically worn over white ballet leotards and tights. “I have tried to bring together the power and finesse of bodies and clothes in a very ethereal collection,” said creative director Virginie Viard.
While some might attribute the dance and ballet inspiration in this collection to the current balletcore trend, Chanel is arguably one of the pioneers of ballet-inspired fashion. Its longstanding history of contributing to the delicate, feminine aesthetic dates back to the introduction of its signature tweed pieces in the 1920s. And of course, we all know and love the iconic ballet flats that Karl Lagerfeld debuted in the Spring/Summer 1984 collection.
As Chanel marks a century since Coco Chanel’s first designs for the ballet, Viard also drew inspiration from the Ballets Russes of Léon Bakst and Sergei Diaghilev, infusing touches of pink and white reminiscent of the dance heritage.