Chanel, known for its stark black and white elegance, went baba cool Tuesday with a 2010-2011 cruise collection steeped in the burnt ochre hippie chic of the 1970s. Barefoot models clutching minimalist sandals and sporting cropped tweed skirt suits layered over triangular bikini tops strutted their stuff along the port of Saint-Tropez, bathed in the golden rays of the setting sun. The audience of fashion insiders — almost uniformly outfitted in oversized shades and sipping chilled rose — took it all in from the port-side Senequier cafe. Vanessa Paradis, the French model-cum-actress who's the face of Chanel's new lipstick line, and German actress Diane Kruger, sporting a bell-shaped minidress in black sequins, were among the celebrities at Tuesday's show, held a day before the start of the star-studded film festival in the neighboring French Riviera town of Cannes. “It was all so beautiful, I really wouldn't know what to choose,” cooed Paradis, who is known for her hippie chic sensibility, after the show. Models including Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall's model daughter Georgia May Jagger weaved among the cafe's cherry red cafe tables as the Rolling Stones' 1967 hit “Let's Spend the Night Together” blasted overhead. The sexy, carefree looks included cropped jackets in pastel knits, bare-it-all dresses in black fishnet with necklines studded with oversized amber beads, and spandex hot pants paired with striped midriff tops. The collection — midseason fare aimed at tiding the globe-trotting Chanel consumer over between winter and summer seasons — practically banished Chanel's trademark minimalist mix of black and white, with looks bathed in autumnal, 70s shades of brown and yellow. Beaded hipster belts and foot adornments and Chanel's iconic chain-strap bags in patchwork completed the anything-goes looks. While some of the girls sported knee-high gladiator sandals in gold and copper lame, most of the girls had baby blue nail polish as their sole foot adornment. A bearded bad boy and Georgia May Jagger roared up on a Harley to close the show as the sun set over the Mediterranean, bathing the audience in its golden rays. Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, wearing a purple and navy blue striped jacket, lapped up the applause as the sun disappeared behind the oversized yachts moored nearby.
