10 best looks from Chanel’s haute couture fall/winter 2023 show

Chanel designer Virginie Viard showcased a timeless, feminine collection against the romantic setting of the Seine river

Paris Couture Week typically calls for extravagant displays, and while fashion brands like Schiaparelli and Thom Browne certainly delivered on that front with their haute couture fall/winter 2023 presentations, Chanel went in another direction—and right onto the scenic banks of Paris’s Seine river.

This season, Chanel designer Virginie Viard contemplated a quality that has defined the French fashion brand ever since it was founded by Coco Chanel: the elusive “Parisienne allure”, more commonly known as French girl chic. It’s what has made style icons out of women like Vanessa Paradis, the French actress (and mother of Lily-Rose Depp) who starred in a teaser for the fashion show.

As Viard explained it in a statement, “Playing with opposites and contrasts, with nonchalance and elegance, is like standing on a line between strength and delicacy, which, at Chanel, is what we call allure.”

Chanel’s latest haute couture fashion show offered a whole wardrobe based on that idea. As models strolled down the paved street, they did so in elegant tweed coats that are sure to serve their owners for a lifetime; floral dresses intricately covered in sequins that caught the light as they moved; or gossamer gowns cut from silk chiffon that turned their wearers into an ethereal vision.

chanel haute couture 2023 fall winter fw23 paris fashion week collection runway photos

Above Chanel haute couture fall/winter 2023 collection (Photo: Chanel)

There were some playful details that suggested that the Chanel woman is never out of touch with her girly side. That includes the bows that adorned necklines (see the Chanel bride that closed the show, for example), or the classic Mary-Jane shoes that the models walked down in. In some cases, evening ensembles were even paired with basket bags brimming with blooms—an idiosyncratic detail that can be credited to French style icon, Jane Birkin.

Most of the collection was designed with a sense of ease and effortlessness in mind. Chanel ambassador Caroline de Maigret set the tone as she modelled the opening look: a long, dark tweed coat with four glittering buttons. With her hands in her pockets, de Maigret was a perfect mystery. Still, there were some outfits for the more flashy Chanel customer, and that includes a metallic gold skirt suit.

Over the decades, French girl style has had many faces and many facets attributed to it, but Chanel’s latest collection distills the look into outfits that surprise, intrigue and delight. Even as the maison toned things down this season, its haute couture heritage was never far away. Simplicity takes confident craftsmanship to achieve, after all.

Below, see 10 standout looks from Chanel’s haute couture fall/winter 2023 collection.