DUBAI: Scintillating colors and celebrity flair lit up a gloomy Manchester on Thursday as the British city — famous for its past textile industry — flaunted the latest fashion in a prestigious Chanel show, which British Moroccan model Nora Attal walked.
Lashed by rain and plunged into winter darkness, the city’s gritty industrial heritage was not an obvious choice as the setting for the glitz and glamour of the French luxury group’s Metiers d’Art event.
The blazer was cropped and featured a flower on her chest. (Chanel)
But the show captivated as models strutted down the catwalk sporting dazzling bermuda shorts, mini-skirts and eye-catching outfits under a temporary covering in a city center street.
Attal, 24, graced the runway in a pink tweed skirt suit — a quintessential British classic —with gold buttons. The blazer was cropped and featured a flower on her chest. She wore a gold chain belt on her waist, matching bracelets and black ballerinas to complete the look.
Actor Hugh Grant, director Sofia Coppola, local football stars Ruben Dias and Luke Shaw, as well as brand ambassadors Charlotte Casiraghi and Kristen Stewart, were among the celebrities in attendance.
“I loved the rock attitudes, the 60s looks,” British actor Jenna Coleman told AFP.
The northern English city was a hub of the 19th century industrial revolution, processing half of the world’s cotton in 1860.
Chanel’s creative director Virginie Viard said Manchester was the starting point for a musical culture that changed the world, inspiring her to bring the show there for its pioneering and creative spirit.
Attal, who has walked the runway for major fashion houses including Tom Ford, Tory Burch, Tiffany & Co., Fendi, Burberry and Valentino, is a Chanel fixture and has walked the runway for the storied brand a number of times over the years.
She hit the runway for Chanel in October 2022 at Paris Fashion Week, where she showed off a number of looks as part of the label’s Spring-Summer 2023 showcase. The ensembles were part of a 71-piece collection designed by the fashion house’s creative director, Virginie Viard.
In June this year, she took part in a campaign for Chanel Beauty, in which she posed wearing a pair of black sunglasses. The model was also seen holding a pocket-sized capsule of Chanel hand cream and lying in long green grass with her oversized branded shades.
