After President Obama and the Rolling Stones: Chanel. On Tuesday, just days after the first American cruise ship in almost 40 years docked at the Havana pier, the French brand became the first European fashion house since Castro seized power in 1959 to stage a show in Cuba.
The runway event kicked off both the official cruise collection season, which stretches to mid-June and involves a messy mix of small presentations, designer chats and a few extravaganzas à la Chanel (still to come: Louis Vuitton in Rio, Gucci at Westminster Abbey, Dior in Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, England) but also a potential — still mostly potential at the moment — new relationship between the island nation and the style set. The connection might finally replace ye olde clichéd Cuba, with its romanticized decrepitude, sorbet shades and old convertibles, with something a little grittier and more realistic in the designer mind.
Although perhaps not quite yet, judging by Chanel.
Held on the Paseo del Prado, Havana’s main thoroughfare, in front of approximately 600 imported guests, including customers, editors (though not me; I watched the show via live stream) and celebrities (Gisele Bündchen, Vanessa Paradis, Tilda Swinton, Vin Diesel), as well as various residents who could be seen hanging over the balconies of apartment buildings lining the avenue, and watching from the street, the show featured the designer Karl Lagerfeld’s signature mixture of muchness: 86 looks, including a few men’s wear styles, all of which ranged from the elaborate to the everyday, with a bathing suit thrown in for good measure.
There were wide-legged pinstriped men’s trousers under relaxed bouclé jackets and sheer calf-length organza guayabera shirt dresses in shades of gray with strategically placed pockets. Leaves of the Monstera deliciosa plant wafted from the full calf-length skirts along with a whiff of Hemingway. There were army green short suits with brass-buttoned shirts finished in macramé fringe, and striped, body-hugging knits and picnic plaid dresses. There were light-as-air white crocheted lace dresses and sparkling pastel sequined party frocks with puffed whipped-cream sleeves.
Oh, and there were panama hats and berets (very Chanel, very Che) and a male model carrying a Cuban cigar. Also silk prints of 1950s Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles in gumdrop shades and souvenir T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Coco Cuba,” which were kind of cheerfully tongue-in-cheek but also teetered uncomfortably on the verge of let-them-eat-cake-dom. Especially at the end when a Cuban band accompanied Mr. Lagerfeld and his host of dancing models down the avenue to the lights of a few hundred iPhones as all of the guests started madly using Instagram (or Snapchat or whatever) to record the moment. Check out the video.
After all, the average wage in Cuba is still around $25 a month. As ABC News pointed out, the show “was a startling sight in a country officially dedicated to social equality and the rejection of material wealth.” Before the event, Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban journalist, posted on Twitter numerous pictures of the security cordon around the avenue.
None of this has escaped Chanel, which has no official history with Cuba — it was not an inspiration for Coco or anything — and has been quick to note that showing there was simply a creative decision, inspired by Cuba’s “cultural richness.” All reports about the event have noted the “warmth” with which it was received, as Sarah Mower wrote on Vogue.com. Beforehand, Emilio Estefan, the Cuban-American musician, told New York magazine’s The Cut that he approved of Chanel’s initiative because “the more people that go there and show them the free world, that’s great for the Cuban people.”
There is no question that simply holding such an event in Havana brings both global attention and real investment to the city. It is expensive to put on such a large show, especially because the jaunt included dinners, parties, sightseeing — even a “Cuba Revolution” tour (ahem). That is a good thing. Who is to say those benefits do not far outweigh the moral ickiness of promoting very expensive clothes for the very few in a country where no one can buy such clothes? (Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion, says the brand has “zero” business in Cuba.) It is easy to get on a high horse from afar. And perhaps the simple act of forcing the issue, of being in Havana and being faced with the contemporary truth of the country instead of its appropriated image, is the best way to start grappling with it.
It’s probably no accident that among the candy colors on the runway, Mr. Lagerfeld consciously included many shades of gray.
