The Ballerinas Wore Chanel on the Stage of the Paris Opera Ballet’s Opening Night

It was that time of the year: the opening fundraiser gala for the new season of the Paris Opera Ballet at Palais Garnier, a glamorous annual rendezvous where fashion meets the arts. This year’s event, which took place last Friday evening, lived up to its starry reputation. With Chanel and Rolex as the main sponsors, the black-tie event brought together a prestigious and elegant roster of international luminaries from the worlds of ballet, fashion, arts, cinema, philanthropy, and culture, who gathered to watch performances from five different choreographers.

The night began with an opulent display of fashion as sumptuous gowns and tuxedoed guests entered the majestic staircase covered with enchanting arrangements of dried flowers in various shades of beige and ivory. Stationed atop the stairs was an impressive art installation made by Claude Lévêque for this year’s 350th anniversary of the Garnier; everyone paused to admire the work and take pictures.

As the bell rang, the show opened with the traditional Défilé du Ballet—a gathering onstage comprising the company’s entire troupe, from the youngest petits rats (pupils of the Paris Opera Ballet school) to the Étoiles dancers, who paraded by rank to the score of Hector Berlioz’s “La Marche des Troyens.” The spectacular procession reunited no less than 250 dancers on stage, offering a tableau of unparalleled beauty, conjuring the setting of the Garnier’s storied Foyer de la Danse.

Orchestrated by ballet director Aurélie Dupont, the performance continued with a series of exclusive short pieces, including Serge Lifar’s Variations, whose costumes were specially designed by the House of Chanel. The delicate white silk tulle tutus embroidered with flowers by the House of Lemarié beautifully accompanied the movements of the six female dancers—a moment of grace.

After the excerpts of Trois Préludes by Ben Stevenson, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux by George Balanchine, and Ab [intra] by Rafael Bonachela, the show ended in triumph with Blake Works 1, a brilliant expression of purity and modernity created by choreographer William Forsythe and set to the mesmerizing music of James Blake.

To follow was a grand dinner inside the magnificent Foyers of the Palais Garnier—one of Paris’s most prized jewels of architecture from the 19th century—where 750 guests gathered for a four-course feast designed by star chefs Tatiana Levha, Manon Fleury, Antonin Bonnet, Sébastien Gaudard, and Franck Audoux.

Chanel’s artistic director, Virginie Viard, was in attendance, surrounded by the maison’s close entourage of stylish muses—among them Aurélie Dupont, Anna Mouglalis, Caroline de Maigret, Alma Jodorowsky—who all looked ravishing wearing Viard’s latest designs. Other guests included Haider Ackermann, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Sébastien Tellier, Virginie Ledoyen, Isabel Marant, Ana Girardot, Nicolas Maury, Dominik Sadoch, and Matthew Brookes, as well as Hiroshi Sugimoto and William Forsythe.

By midnight, everyone had gathered for the after-party beneath the blue neon lights of the theater’s Rotonde des Abonnés, which was transformed into a dance floor for the occasion. There, the City of Light’s most stylish crowd engaged in dance-offs with the Étoiles dancers until the end of the night to a soundtrack provided by DJs Agathe Mougin and Wladimir Schall. It was an encore of sorts that lasted late into the night.