Watch: The Magic of Chanel’s Métiers d’Art Show

Chanel. Chanel.

Chanel. Chanel.

Chanel. Chanel.

Of course I'm headed for Chanel. [laughing]

[soft pop music]

I'm Hamish Bowles, Vogues International Editor-At-Large,

and we're at Chanel's Metrie D'art show

in the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

in New York City.

[soft pop music]

The theme is Egypt, which I think is kinda tight.

It's really tight.

You can see my eyes, they're done.

You see?

[soft pop music]

Hi, I'm Sam McKnight.

I'm doing hair at Chanel backstage at the Met.

Karl didn't send me a sketch this time,

so I took it upon myself to avoid

direct Egyptian reference to the hair

except for I've made the hair look as though it's oiled.

Like thick, heavy hair that's been oiled heavily

and brushed into place, honed into place,

almost like a statue.

Wet sculpture-like, close to the head,

but still with a few natural waves left in it.

[upbeat pop music]

The Metrie show always is about art.

Karl always loves art, and I love architecture,

so it's perfect.

When I was in Paris recently going to visit him

while he was still working and it was the day of the show,

and they were still getting the collectsion together

and doing last minute touch ups.

And just watching him actually work

and watching that he was so happy doing it,

it was really great.

I don't know what I'm gonna see.

A history, it's gonna be something very special.

But I have been a fan of what they do

since I was like 13, 14.

[upbeat pop music]

That's my friend, that's my brother.

He gave me a little smirk, but he was full in character.

This is my first time seeing him walk

so it was a great moment.

I love a lot of the jewelry.

Thought the show was super beautiful,

and I love the modern twist,

and I love the Eqyptian twist as well.

[Hamish] We went from a pretty classical idea

of ancient Egypt with almost literal reinterpretations

of classical ancient Egyptian dress

and certainly embellishment, jewelry and so on,

and mixed in with a little bit of Memphis,

as in the kind of '80s design group

that he used to collects back in the day

and an idea of New York and maybe a bit of '80s subway art

and graffiti and perhaps this idea

of melding the concept of hieroglyphs and graffiti

as being a kind of modern expression

of leaving messages around your civilization's monuments.

[upbeat pop music]