• Camila Cabello, Rebecca Armstrong, Whitney Peak and Dakota Fanning

    Paris Fashion Week: A Star-Studded Chanel Affair

    Written by Jahwanna Berglund

    As the grand doors of the Grand Palais swung open, anticipation filled the air. This season, Chanel’s creation studio took center stage, unveiling a collection that redefined the house’s codes with imagination and precision. The runway wasn’t just about fashion; it was a cultural moment—where heritage met modernity, and celebrities became part of the spectacle.
    From Dakota Fanning’s effortless Parisian chic to South African singer Tyla’s bold Barbie-pink tweed look, the front row was a testament to Chanel’s cross-generational and global appeal. Icons like Naomi Campbell, Jessica Alba, Charlotte Casiraghi, Riley Keough, Peggy Gou, and Wang Yibo—each with their own distinctive style—brought their own interpretation of the maison’s signature elegance.

    The collection itself played with opposites—masculine versus feminine, structured versus fluid. Bows, pearls, and layers—hallmarks of Chanel’s legacy—were reimagined with playful audacity. Oversized satin bows cascaded from shoulders, while single pearl-heeled shoes became an instant must-have. Diaphanous capes in illusion tulle floated down the runway, juxtaposed against sharp, structured tweed suits in champagne, black, and crisp white.
    Whitney Peak, Chanel’s first Black fragrance ambassador, embodied the maison’s contemporary spirit, arriving in a structured tweed blazer with an unexpected edge. Meanwhile, Naomi Campbell, always a force in fashion, reflected on the industry’s evolution, bringing a sense of history and purpose to the evening.

    Chanel has always had a gravitational pull on the fashion and entertainment elite, but this show felt particularly magnetic. Tyla, in her meticulously curated pink tweed co-ord set and layers of Chanel jewelry, described her look as “classic rich Chanel girl”—a phrase that perfectly captured the collection’s balance between tradition and youthful irreverence.
    The front row was more than just a lineup of famous faces; it was a reflection of Chanel’s enduring cultural influence. Jessica Alba exuded polished elegance, Charlotte Casiraghi carried herself with quiet regality, and Wang Yibo brought a cool, modern sensibility. Each guest added to the narrative that Chanel is not just a fashion house—it’s a symbol of self-expression.

    As the final look—a breathtaking layered creation—glided down the runway, it was clear that Chanel’s creation studio had masterfully reimagined the brand’s legacy. More than just a seasonal offering, this collection was a statement of evolution—proving that Chanel is always evolving, yet always unmistakably Chanel.
    As the fashion world spilled out into the Parisian night, one thing was certain: Paris Fashion Week may be star-studded, but at Chanel, the true magic is always in the details.


    www.chanel.com

    Image courtesy of Chanel

    Tyla

    Naomi Campbell and Peggy Gou 

    Charlotte Casiraghi and Caroline de Maigret

    Carole Bouqet and Charlotte Cardin

    Jessica Alba and Liu Wen

    Wang Yibo and Abd al-Malik

    Constance Tsang and Emma Bale

    Rebecca Marder and Riley Keough

  • photograpy Joanna Kelly
    creative direction Anna Mikaela Ekstrand
    fashion Sanna Fried

    Is it Nepotism or Working Amongst Friends? Sanna Fried and Anna Mikaela Ekstrand

    Written by Xuezhu Jenny Wang by Nicole Miller

    Nepotism in the fashion industry has long been under scrutiny, from the New York Times roundup titled “Nepo Babies Crowd the Runways” to Kendall Jenner’s 2018 Love magazine interview, in which she infamously said, “I was never one of those girls who would do like 30 shows a season.” In the art world, however, it’s a grayer area. On January 24th, The Art Newspaper reported on “concerns over nepotism row” at the National Portrait Gallery, noting that a photographer exhibiting works at the London gallery had previously made substantial donations to the institution. Responses to the headline vary, yet the majority of Instagram users who commented on this post expressed familiarity with the prevalence of said phenomenon, many arguing that the whole art industry is practically built on friend networks. For a field known for a history of salons, high-society patrons, and tight-knit movements, there is a fine line between connection and favoritism.

    Writer and curator Anna Mikaela Ekstrand says that more often than not, the everyday artist or curator adopts some form of “nepotism” not necessarily out of monetary motivations but rather as a result of intellectual exchange or skill-sharing. Ekstrand recalls, “Collaboration has always been central to my work. When I started calling myself a curator, there was a huge boom in curatorial programs worldwide, but not enough work to go around.” This collaborative thinking stemmed from her early experience at the BMW Guggenheim Lab—an urban planning think tank bringing in more than 100 minds—as well as her familiarity with performance artist Ayana Evans’s practice, who would invite colleagues to co-perform at institutional commissions so that everyone can get paid and build their resume. Later, Ekstrand started the online publication Cultbytes to involve and credit as many people as possible. In a similar vein, she has also co-authored Curating Beyond the Mainstream (Sternberg Press) where she examined the collaborative architectural research group BiG (Bo i Gemenskap, or “Live in Community”), and built communities through The Immigrant Artist Biennial.

    Artist Sanna Fried shares a similar ethos: “When you collaborate with someone, it’s about merging different fields and relying on each other’s expertise. You cannot trust someone unless you know they are good at what they do.” A friend and collaborator of Ekstrand’s, Fried spent most of her working years in fashion before transitioning to pursue visual arts professionally four years ago. Now, her canvas-based works explore self-representation, narcissism, and the public persona through painterly reenactments of thirst traps, mirror selfies, and exposed bodies. Still, she continues to bridge the two distinct worlds of fashion and art through styling projects, magazine editorials, and more broadly, exploring how expression is manifested through the auto-image—tangible and digital alike. The transition, however, was not without a learning curve.

    Xuezhu Jenny Wang: Is this overlap between fashion and art new? Both of you have been working on projects that bridge the two fields—what are some differences you have so far observed?

    Anna Mikaela Ekstrand:
    It’s quite new to me. We live in a world where hierarchies and boundaries are constantly blurred. But at the end of the day, these are two different industries—fashion caters to a broader market.

    So far, I’ve done about five fashion editorials to bring artists a more “mainstream” clout. In an exhibition, my job of a curator is to give artwork primacy and create a dialogue among the artworks. In an editorial setting, I involve stylists, hair and makeup artists, photographers, and creative directors—asking them, “How do you interpret this artist? How does their work inspire you?”

    Sanna Fried: It feels liberating to move towards the art scene from the fashion world. My art is highly inspired by my years in fashion, and I like to return to my roots. But painting is something that gives me the ultimate satisfaction. While my work in both fields is about the same kind of desire to express things, working in fashion was a lot about the commercial and making money. Translating these images into paintings makes me feel like I can focus on the messages better.

    XJW: What does your friendship mean for your respective careers?

    AME: We have a constant conversation on WhatsApp, talking about her career and my new editorial projects. Recently, Sanna has been so incredible in helping me figure out the different ways of communicating in fashion. For instance, the mood board is so important to fashion editorials, and Sanna explained the concept to me.

    SF: And likewise, at first, I didn’t know what an artist statement was. Anna Mikaela had to explain it to me.

    XJW: Do you communicate with each other differently as collaborators versus as friends? Are there disagreements from time to time?

    SF: I actually think we communicate in a softer way when working together. Privately, we can be pretty direct to each other. Of course, in creative projects, there are more people than just the two of us involved. A lot of the work is about coordinating who’s whose contact; you reach out to this person, and I reach out to that person.

    AME: We both trust and respect each other. Even when there are things I don’t agree with, I trust her taste—Sanna has an incredible eye—understand that her ideas are good, choose my battles, and move on. Team work makes the dream work; hence our photoshoot, not only playing together but also being prepared to clean each other's messes, quite literally.

    SF: And between the two of us, we have very different skillsets. Anna Mikaela is like a human ChatGPT. She writes better than AI. I’m never going to interfere with what she writes, and likewise, she won’t interfere with what I paint.

    XJW: Speaking of your paintings, Sanna, could you share more about your exhibition at Engelbrekt Cathedral in Stockholm?

    SF: The show in Sweden is actually a continuation of the paintings I did two years ago about my grandmother, Hédi Fried, a Holocaust survivor. Actually, the entire series was painted in Mexico City, so the process was strongly influenced by Mexico and Mexican female painters like Remedios Varo. My grandmother traveled constantly and spent a lot of time in Mexico. When researching for the exhibition, I found so many photos from her travels there. It was a really special process.

    AME: You’ve spoken about how she sometimes prioritized her public role as a proponent of human rights over her personal life. You and your father, for example, have both continued your grandmother’s legacy, which naturally connects to this theme we are talking about today.

    XJW: Does collaboration between friends count as nepotism?

    AME:
    To me collaboration lives within the realm of nepotism. When I look at my own projects, there’s a lot of nepotism there, in the sense that I often choose my friends to be my collaborators. But I do so because I’ve worked with them before, and sometimes it’s hard to go out with a public call as many of my projects don’t have a lot of funding. This format of collaboration has kind of shaped what the art world looks like and just becomes natural.

    It’s important to recognize that you don’t have to be born into certain circles to gain access—you can build connections yourself. Friendship and community can be more important than family ties.

    SF: Definitely, it’s not just your blood family, but also your chosen family.

    This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

    photography Joanna Kelly
    creative direction Anna Mikaela Ekstrand
    fashion Sanna Fried
    hair and makeup Francisca Saavedra von Dessauer / Agent Bauer
    retouch Jesper Yu


    total look AVAVAV & adidas Originals by AVAVAV
    jewellery VonZwe / Football Women's Euro25 LGE Ball

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