Dr Benjamin Wild, Senior Lecturer at the Manchester Fashion Institute shares what it was like for 50 students to be selected to work backstage at Chanel’s show.
Chanel approached the Manchester Fashion Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University to select local talent within its undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Since the show was a well-kept industry secret, even the students didn’t know they were applying for a job with the iconic international brand. Ben says: “Initially when the students were asked to put themselves forward, we couldn’t name Chanel. We could only talk about a ‘large luxury fashion brand’.”
The secret was even kept from the applicants during the interview process, it wasn’t until the lucky 50 out of 300 applicants had been successful that they would find out the enormity of the brand they’d be working with.
The Métiers d’Art, meaning art professions, is an annual show by Chanel to showcase the small specialist workshops which Chanel began buying in 1984 to preserve their craftsmanship and expertise. Previous shows have been hosted in New York (2018), Paris (2019), Tokyo (2022) and now in Manchester (2023).
About the significance of the Métiers d’Art coming to Manchester, Ben says: “I think Manchester has always been on the map, but I think this is that recognition of its place and position on the map. Historically in Manchester, where Chanel placed the catwalk on Thomas Street, was the heart of ‘cottonopolis’ as Manchester was called in the 18th century. So, it’s recognising that history of Manchester.”
And Manchester’s fashion significance is not just a thing of the past, Harper’s Bazaar (the American monthly fashion magazine) deemed Manchester the “chic capital of the North” and the fashion and footwear blog, Wynsors ranks Manchester as the second most fashionable city in the UK with a mighty 104,951 uses of the hashtag #ManchesterFashion at time of publication. Ben comments: “What matters in Manchester is a sense of authenticity and identity. I don’t think people necessarily seek to be fashionable, I think they are fashionable because what they regard as a citizen is that sense of authenticity in what they wear.
“Manchester is such a rich melting pot because of the industrialisation, the politics of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst being born here, and the music scene with bands like Joy Division, it’s blending all these ideas which come out in the way people express themselves.”
Chanel.com/gb/fashion/collection/ metiers-art-2023-24
Fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk