Chanel and the Meaning of the Belly Button

And Giorgio Armani, recycling himself.

PARIS — For years the Chanel show was the biggest, most famous, most showy show in Paris. Guests would throng the steps of the Grand Palais, where it was traditionally held, decked out in their double-C finery (bags and boots and brooches), seeding selfies like ginkgo trees across their Instagram feeds. It would be impossible not to know it was Chanel day, whether or not you were in Paris, whether or not you had any interest in fashion shows. It elevated the brand to pop culture-event-level status. That was when Karl Lagerfeld was the designer, and he reveled in building evermore snappable (or Snap-able) sets: airports and supermarkets and brasseries and even a beach with actual waves. Once he set off a rocket ship. If the backdrops overshadowed his collections and sometimes seemed a wee bit profligate, given the ephemerality of the event — if they felt as much like sleight of hand as creativity — hey: the whole experience was so fashion fabulous, it was practically the definition of the phrase.