Anyone with the right credit card limit can source archival fashion, but only a select few beings on this earth can pull haute couture they debuted on the runway 28 years ago and still look good in it. It almost goes without saying that Naomi Campbell is one of those few.
The runway legend sauntered onto the Cannes red carpet today for the premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in a look from Chanel’s fall 1996 Haute Couture collection. Campbell herself premiered the dress on late designer Karl Lagerfeld’s runway back in the summer of 1996. Then, she wore it with a simple headpiece. Today, she wore it with long, texture hair.
If the dress seems utterly classic, there’s good reason for that. When Lagerfeld arrived at Chanel in the ’80s, he updated the house’s codes with a subversive flair that was wildly commercially successful but had some Chanel purists clutching their pearls. At the time, some claimed Lagerfeld’s streetwear-inspired designs would have Coco Chanel herself rolling in her grave. The Fall 1996 couture collection, however, was a total ode to the taste of Madame Chanel herself and a reinvention of several 1930s silhouettes. Some claimed it was almost conservative for Lagerfeld. Then again, considering this particular dress consists of semi-sheer, underwear-baring paneling down the skirt, it’s hard to pretend Lagerfeld went too conservative.
It also appears all but confirmed that Campbell was styled by Law Roach for the event. While Roach claims he now only works with Zendaya, the chance to style Naomi for Cannes in archival Chanel couture is enough to get any fashion lover out of semi-retirement. On his Instagram, Roach posted images of a welcome package from Chanel and an image of Campbell in 1997 to his stories. Later, he appeared at Campbell’s side on the red carpet wearing a Chanel jacket of his own. The moment comes after a string of interviews over the past week in which Roach explained why Zendaya has never worn Chanel on the red carpet and why he’s felt the fashion industry so often looks down on black stylists who work with black clients.
Consider this a legacy moment for both client and stylist then.
