{start-jlvideo}1873,640,361,thumb,Photo Courtesy of Chanel{end-jlvideo}
Chanel’s Reincarnation finally premiered yesterday in Salzburg, and needless to say it’s perfect. Combining a little elegance, storytelling, history and off-handed quirkiness that connects the brand with modern audiences, the seven-minute fashion film tells the story of Gabrielle Chanel’s inspiration for her now iconic jacket. In the video Pharrell Williams and Cara Delevingne play an elevator operator and bar maid, respectively. And while they’re terrible at their jobs—at one point Williams’ character falls asleep and Delevingne starts a scuffle in the dining room—at night they come alive, dancing as the reincarnated Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The two also sang duet on the Pharrell-penned song CC the World, proving Delevingne can definitely hold her own with the award-winning singer/songwriter.
Appearances by Heidi Mount, Jamie Bochert, Baptiste Giabiconi and Brad Kroenig are made in the film, with Géraldine Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin’s daughter) playing the designer herself. “It was really the moment to show the roots where the jacket came from, inspired by the lift boy in a hotel near Salzburg in the early ’50s when she made her comeback,” Lagerfeld explained in a behind-the-scenes interview from the video set. In the film Chanel stops the lift boy to ask where he got his jacket. When he responds that it was made specifically for him, she smiles, looks into the camera and responds: “Well I am going to make it for me.”
