Did you know that Coco Chanel did not start her business making fabulous dresses, tweed, jersey twin-sets nor fragrances? At the very beginning, she was an orphan who grew up to be a cabaret singer… to then create a hat business. In 1910, when the Chanel company was born, Coco was a milliner and not the brilliant business women and designer we know!
Chanel is a surprisingly modern fashion house. If the eighties almost killed the brand created by Coco Chanel in the early 1900s, Karl Lagerfeld knew how to put back some serious dynamism and rad avant-garde into each of his collections from 1983 to 2018!
Restless, modern, classic yet edgy, sophisticated yet cool… the brand Chanel made a name on a paroxysmal femininity that enjoyed the countryside as much as much as concrete sidewalks and champagne as much as camomile. But champagne is better, of course.
If you didn’t know already, these jumps from a posh lady style to a rock star look in the collections designed by Karl Lagerfeld – and, following his death in February 2019, Virginie Viard’s collections – sure pushed karl Lagerfeld to very soon develop sneakers for the Chanel women.
Even in his eponymous brand, he love designing edgy and cool sneakers that resonated with his likings. As long sneakers are concerned, the German designer and Virginie Viard sure made amongst the best models that can be found today.
Chanel was unlikely to be designing sneakers – Coco Chanel did not even go for over the knee skirts!! – but it sure was something that the German and French Duo, Lagerfeld and Viard, managed very well.
If you are interested in knowing more, I picked for you a few of their best creations… So, let yourself be inspired or even fall in love, these Chanel beauties are only waiting for you and your feet to adopt them!
Chanel’s quilted sole sneakers: the elegant and posh ladies’ running shoes
Sneakers are not usually associated with a grand sense of luxury, elegance and refinement. But Chanel, as always, had to bring a lot of elegance, luxury and refinement in the design of their sneakers… and that specific quilted sole sneakers that Chanel issued quite recently are really the most posh and sophisticated sneakers you could dream of! Be ready to fall in love with these cuties straight away: you can’t resist Chanel, you know.
These Chanel sneakers are made of calfskin, polyurethane and various fibers. Not so sexy said like that, but do not trust that first impression: these luxury sneakers are a manifesto of Chanel’s ability to make anything with incredible craftsmanship.
The black and white sole is two centimetres high with a quilted look – they are moulded – that reminds the quilting of the famous 5.55 handbag.
The ivory upper sole is made of leather patched up in ways and sewed one with the other with various stitches that are like a testimony of the French brand’s savoir-faire. To give a perfect finish to the very distinctive and distinguished look of that Chanel model, black laces are the utmost perfect glamorous bow on top of these beauties.
More than mere sneakers, this Chanel design really brings that sportswear item up to the next level: sophisticated with this ivory and black combination, elegant with the aerodynamic design and slightly wedged sole, luxury thanks to that quilted look…
These sneakers are shoes you can wear at work, at the park, running errands… everywhere but the sports room and running tracks – be irreverent and wear them like your most precious pair of heels!
Chanel’s sporty running shoes: no one will be able to catch you!
Remember your tennis shoes from you high school years? Maybe you thought they were drastically atrocious and you would have rather missed the PE class rather than put on you sneakers.
Well, Chanel heard your screaming inner teenager to offer you a revisitation of these weird and ugly running shoes so you can have a much cooler version of them. Very graphic, sporty just enough and not too much, these sneakers will soon take you back with nostalgia – and style – to those years.
Shamelessly sporty and elegantly graphic, the Chanel running shoes are made in three main colours: brown, blue and orange, mauve and turquoise. A thick running shoes sole structure the upper shoe, made of leather patches neatly cut and assembled in a very cool and modern cubic way.
Wide laces and padded ankle are the key to the comfort of this design and the overall look is like the upgraded version of a nineties running track pair of sneakers.
If you want to wear these sneakers at your office, you might think twice about the dress code at your work place. Indeed, as charming these Chanel shoes are, they have bright colours and might not be urban enough to be a good fit in a formal situation.
But except from your work outfits, make sure you have them at your feet in any situation: whether you are having a drink with friends, enjoying a book at the park or playing with your kids, these Chanel beauties will be your best friends!
CHANEL SNEAKERS WHITE UNBOXING
Chanel’s high-top sneakers: the youthful outburst of roundness and colours
Who would have thought that Chanel would design such a surprising pair of sneakers… childish, very round, colourful, these high-top Chanel sneakers are like a sweet sixteen throwback to take you all the way back to the seventies and remind you of your favourite sneakers then.
Still, make sure you don’t forget that you are wearing Chanel: very sophisticated and fun details recalling their handbags lines are hidden in the design and this wink at their savoir-faire makes these sneakers even cooler.
The upper shoe of these Chanel sneakers is a white canvas with camel and ref lambskin and suede calfskin that mix up in a really pretty way all together. Graphic and pure, the lines are neat and do not weigh on the shoes.
A very sophisticated suede calfskin label with a metallic Chanel double C logo on the side of the shoes sign the pair of sneakers. But there it is, the most important part of the shoe: these thick white soles have the particularity to be cut in half by a particular sign… a metal and leather chain alike the Chanel 5.55 handbag’s chain-strap!
The Chanel high-top sneakers convey a really cool and chic négligé vibe that you will absolutely crave to have somewhere in your shoes closet. A bit like a crazy piece of jewellery, these sneakers are a sweet treat for child-hearted women with a taste for the unique and unexpected.
And, need I say, these peculiar soles that are like a tribute to the best selling ever handbag from Coco Chanel herself are purely magical and, just for them, I would recommend you to go get them!
Chanel’s ultra desirable collaboration with Pharell Williams: a must
“The world is Coco”, “Chanel Pharell”… these are as much words and phrasings that you will read if you purchase the very modern, naïve, refreshing sneakers that Chanel issued along with American singer Pharell Williams.
From a very simple form – the urban white sneaker – the French maison and the American celebrity – who is always happy, isn’t he? – created a cool and youthful design that was sold on limited edition… and you can be sure you will find some in vintage and specialised stored and you need to go get them!
The Chanel Pharell collaboration is very simple in its look: picture a white tennis shoe alike that of a German brand you might know as I evoke it, but picture it in a really fine leather, with amazing stitches that resonate sophistication and a “Chanel” in black engraved on each exterior sides of the sneakers.
But the very uniqueness resides in the drawings: over that immaculate white leather, Pharell Williams drew Chanel logos, wrote sentences, put colourful laces on with “Pharell Chanel” written on them… in a word he made a child’s dream come true: tag shoes and not only avoid being scolded but getting paid for ding it!
The Pharell Chanel are like a collector item: you should have them for the sake of it and the memory of this happening. But seeing things otherwise, you might also consider that these are actually really cool and wearable shoes that will accompany you even at work – the drawings might not be too serious but the overall design is quite really ok – and at your wildest parties with a cool vaporous long skirt!
CHANEL PHARRELL SNEAKERS Unboxing
Chanel, the unexpected designer of… brilliant sneakers
For sure, I was not expecting to be able to write as much about Chanel sneakers as I did – for the one simple reason you would not think of this brand when looking for sneakers.
But the French grande dame managed to renew its lines and designs under the marvellous realm of Karl Lagerfeld who offered to all Chanel women the ideal sporty footwear. Maybe you did not know you needed it… but now, I am sure, you crave it!
