CHANEL SPRING/SUMMER 1993 (93P) GOLD PLATED HAMMERED SPELLOUT LOGO CHAIN LINK BELT

Hammered gold-plated belt from Chanel’s Spring/Summer 1993 ready-to-wear runway show under the artistic direction of Karl Lagerfeld.

“Lagerfeld’s main conceit for the season was to pair the house’s tweed jackets with logoed men’s briefs à la Calvin Klein.”, noted Vogue in January 1992. “Unlike the Marky Mark and Kate Moss ads of the same year, at Chanel the effect wasn’t sizzle but camp. Men’s briefs, Lagerfeld told the New York Times, are “the last thing women haven’t taken from the men.” Ultimately, though, the real news here was in the hyper-femininity of the opening look’s back-zipped corset and the generous 18th-century-style décolletage it created. This was the erogenous zone that would interest Lagerfeld for the next few seasons. Another way that the designer played with the innerwear-as-outerwear trend was to pair bras, rather than shirts or tees or tanks, with tweedy jackets. There was also a series of floaty romantic embroidered dresses in the softest of pastels. The collection’s voulez-vous couchez avec moi came at the finale, when Lagerfeld sent out a parade of cool, virginal white summer dresses that seemed to have been assembled using the contents of a linen closet and featured embroideries and openwork typically used for bedclothes. Vogue photographed Karen Mulder looking like a million bucks in the designer’s artfully styled aforementioned bra and panties, oversized white cotton shirt, cardigan and trousers combination worn with a number of the layered accessories that appeared with headline-making profusion on the runway.

Victoire de Castellane’s bold aesthetic and playful approach to designs led her to leading Chanel’s costume jewelry department into an era of vibrancy and energetic ingenuity under Karl Lagerfeld’s creative direction. This gold-plated hammered belt  is in very good condition with minor wear to the chain links, as photographed. 

Made in France. 

L: 84 cm / 33 in.

As seen on Karen Mulder on the Chanel 1993 Spring / Summer runway.