2024-03-17 16:34:04
One of the best surprises at Paris Fashion Week in February was designer Chemena Kamali’s debut collection for the house of Chloé. With her designs she brought the Parisienne back to the runway.
Kamali, the likeable German with Persian roots, was born in 1981 and spent her youth in Dortmund. She was interested in fashion from an early age and was lucky that her parents supported her in learning the craft from scratch.
While studying at the University of Trier, Kamali worked for the then very renowned Nördlingen fashion brand Strenesse, where she soon designed high-quality clothing and became acquainted with Jil Sander. Kamali graduated from Central Saint Martins in London in 2007.
A look from the Chloé winter collection 2024/25: lace and leather – greetings from Lagerfeld!Chloé
In the meantime, the petite woman had also gained references abroad because she worked on design projects and fashion collections parallel to her studies, for example for Alberta Ferretti or the American jeans brand Frame. With great passion, she developed her own, very feminine style at an early age. A particular role model for her was the fashion label Chloé, one of the first purely French ready-to-wear brands; Founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion, a woman just as independent and emancipated as Kamali.
C’est formidable: Leather and silk meet on these legs.Chloé
At Chloé, Aghion initially worked with a collective of different designers. This was something completely new in the early 1960s. The brand stood for a young style that made the new generation of women appear independent, but still romantic and feminine. One of the designers was also German and his name was: Karl Lagerfeld. At that time, Lagerfeld supplied more than 40 different employers with his designs.
Kamali and Lagerfeld: Germans for Chloé’s success
Lagerfeld gradually took over the entire creation of the brand and, together with Aghion, shaped the typical Chloé look. The company became enormously successful until Lagerfeld left in 1984. However, he came back again and caused a second wave of success in the mid-90s.
And now it’s a German again who brings Chloé into the conversation. Chemena Kamali had already worked for the brand as part of Phoebe Philo’s team during her studies. She returned to Chloé in 2012 as design director under Clare Waight Keller, moved to Saint Laurent in 2016 and worked as design director for the women’s line under Anthony Vaccarello. However, deep down she remained loyal to Chloé.
And here is the typical Chloé woman, a little more dressed up and with a touch of BohoChloé
“My heart has always belonged to Chloé. “It’s been that way since I walked through the doors of the house over twenty years ago,” she is quoted as saying by the company when she took up the position of creative director in fall 2023. The history of the house and the vintage archive are enormously fascinating and the basis for the renewal of the Chloé style. How well she succeeded in this renewal was evident from the enthusiasm generated by her debut collection for winter 2024.
The Chloé show was hailed by fashion audiences as one of the best of Paris Fashion Week. Also due to the skilfully placed borrowings and quotations from the Lagerfeld collections between 1976 and 1979 as well as his spring collection in 1995: lace, volume and flowing transparency dominated. Denim and leather were combined with lingerie and delicate fabrics, one of Chloé’s codes. The finely nuanced beige and powder tones as well as the flowing crepe and chiffon silk blouses and dresses were also typical of Chloé. Kamali translated this perfectly into her design language and created a new Chloé look that is deeply rooted in the ideas of Aghion and Lagerfeld.
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Chloé from the Lagerfeld era on the vintage market
If you’re looking for the original vintage pieces that Lagerfeld designed for Chloé and that Kamali references, you’ve got a good chance. Even though the Chloé labels don’t reveal anything about Karl Lagerfeld, the whole world knew at the time that he was the designer. His creations were particularly successful in Germany at the end of the 1970s and again in the 1990s. The items can be found primarily in stationary second-hand shops in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, where you can mainly find dresses, blouses and, if you’re lucky, the spectacular cape coats and wide skirts. You can also try it online at Vinted or Vestiaire Collective; Please check back regularly.
French sophistication: romantic lace, blue jeans and gold-colored chain beltChloé
It seems to be a match: the Germans and Chloé. First Lagerfeld, and now Kamali. It looks as if the designer from North Rhine-Westphalia is once again evoking “golden times of fashion” for the French brand. Kamali’s father would certainly have been particularly proud of her triumph – unfortunately, he died a week before his talented daughter’s magnificent show.
#Chloés #success #German