Chanels Karl Lagerfeld cheered and jeered for feminist fashion statement

Fashion press hails catwalk models mock demo but critics accuse designer of co-opting feminism to sell costly clothes

On Tuesday 30 September 2014 the unthinkable happened: feminism entered the realm of high fashion. In the finale to the most anticipated show of Paris fashion week, Chanel models strutted down the catwalk brandishing placards demanding womens rights, in a faux protest that was simultaneously hailed as a breakthrough for a new wave of feminism and decried as consumerist claptrap.

Under the soaring roof of the Grand Palais, along a catwalk fashioned to look like a chic Parisian boulevard, Karl Lagerfelds models swapped handbags for banners; pouts for protests against machoism. The worlds highest-paid models Gisele Bündchen and Cara Delevingne shouted through megaphones encased in lush leather padding, and heavily branded with the Chanel logo but when they used the traditional rally cry: What do we want?, the answer, according to those in the audience, was indistinct.

Continue reading...