What does lace-trimmed silk underwear have to do with a runway set constructed as a giant mainframe computer? “This is technology. But with the lingerie, it’s intimate technology!” Karl Lagerfeld’s description of Chanel’s spring show. And what of the “intimate technology”? Was it a reference to the significant bond between the everywoman and her smartphone screen? The constant swiping we all do, in the privacy of whatever state of dress or undress we’re in, at all times of the day and night? Brain freeze soon sets in when tackling such Lagerfeldian conundrums. It was far better to relax and look at the mega-data streaming along the runway.

PARIS, OCTOBER 4, 2016
by SARAH MOWER