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There 35 artisans spent days sculpturing the 28-foot mountain of frozen water in to an apparition that made the Chanel show on Tuesday four of the more unforgettable pieces of theater, fashion or otherwise, that most in the audience were likely to see. It was a National Geographic moment, a stunt of the sort only a designer like Karl Lagerfeld could come up with, or afford, thanks to the deep corporate pockets of Chanel.THE berg was not, as it appeared, a solid block of ice. It was plenty of, a total of 240 tons of “snice,” or snow-ice, purportedly hacked from a glacier in Sweden, hauled to Germany in 15 tractor-trailers & installed in a specially built waterproof box at the Grand Palais.
For reasons that were not altogether clear but may have had something to do with pooled water & electrical cables lying about, the security guards formed a human wall blocking the Vogue editors Tonne Goodman & Grace Coddington; the Vanity Fair correspondent Ingrid Sischy; Lady Amanda Harlech; Babeth Djian, the editor of Numéro; & Jonathan Newhouse, the chairman of Condé Nast International, from going backstage.
But there was as well as a Woody Allen moment, & it occurred after the last of the models, clad in fake fur Wookie-wear, had sloshed through the puddles & offstage, as well as a small group of Mr. Lagerfeld’s industry friends tried to see & congratulate him.
Then, in an abrupt reversal familiar to somebody who has ever encountered Italian bureaucracy, they changed their minds. The guards moved away, & the small crowd surged all together to where Mr. Lagerfeld posed beside his ice sculpture surrounded on two sides by television crews. Still separated from her mate & idol, Ms. Sischy called out plaintively.
BlackBerrys were fired up. Frantic calls were dialed. Well-shod hooves were stamped. Ms. Sischy upbraided the security force, assuring them that Mr. Lagerfeld would be both angry & “triste” if prevented from seeing his adoring fans. But the guards would not be budged. Passage backstage was impossible!
