Chloé Resort 2025: Opulence Meets ’70s Eccentricity
“Becoming Karl Lagerfeld,” the six-part TV series now streaming on Hulu, is sure to fan interest in the fashions of the early ’70s, which have proven a winning starting point for Chloé’s new creative director Chemena Kamali.
The mood board for her resort 2025 collection for the house captivated with photos of Lagerfeld’s Saint-Sulpice apartment, whose shell-shaped sofa and other Art Deco furnishings served as the set for many a fashion shoot, including one for Italian Vogue by David Bailey that focused on a 1975 Chloé collection.
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Kamali cross-pollinated the colors and textures of that sumptuous apartment with Andy Warhol’s Factory universe, which collided with Lagerfeld’s clan in his underground movie “L’Amour.” She’s been a fanatic for the bohemian glamour of the period, exemplified by models Pat Cleveland, Jane Forth and Donna Jordan, also pinning photos from Billy Mane’s 1997 book “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” a favorite of hers since forever.
She applied just the right dose of all that eccentricity, decadence and eclecticism into covetable Chloé archetypes — frothy blouses, billowing Empire dresses, wispy camisole tops and groovy jeans — and tossed in a few outliers, including leather knee shorts, knit Bermudas, gold lamé tunics and used-car salesman checkered blazers.
“I wanted it to look really like a girl’s closet, not too merchandised, to give a personal feeling,” she said as racks of opulent black-and-gold fil coupé fabrics yielded to punchier colors, and quirkier styles like fringed leather jackets and extreme bell-bottoms. Buttery-soft Henleys, a logo T-shirt and squishy sneakers resembling boxing boots grounded ensembles in contemporary times.
Despite all the razor-sharp references plucked from Chloé’s vast visual archive, you can tell Kamali also designs instinctively, and with practicality in mind. The former is evident in her sudden penchant for accumulations of busy costume jewelry, which brought Loulou de la Falaise to mind, and the latter in her nifty leather bucket bag, which seals up when a gold ring is tugged down over the handles, and those distinctive sneakers in makeup colors and the suggestion of broderie anglaise in the mesh sections.
There’s humor, too, in the little pineapple and banana charms sprinkled on ballerina flats, bracelets and dangling from day bags. “There’s always a banana,” Kamali said with a laugh. “There is something spirited about this collection that is relatable rather than escapist.”
Launch Gallery: Chloé Spring 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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