Chanel and Apple Music Have Teamed Up to Release Runway Show Playlists and Tunes Curated by Stars Like Pharrell Williams
Karl Lagerfeld once said that “music gives color to the air of the moment,” and it’s apparent he’s stuck by that statement when it comes to using harmonies and beats to underscore his creations. At the Spring 2015 show in Paris, Baz Luhrmann called his spectacles for Chanel “great, big, grand operas.” When Lagerfeld took Chanel to Havana, Cuba, for the country’s first international fashion show, he enlisted Cuban singers Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz to serenade the audience. Elton John’s “Rocket Man” added yet more playfulness to the life-size Chanel rocket ship set at the house’s Fall 2017 show. Most recently, the Métiers d’Art 2018 show was staged with a full orchestra performance inside the Elbphilharmonie in the kaiser’s hometown of Hamburg, Germany.
Chanel is one fashion house that has always paid close attention to its musical score, and today, everyone can listen to Lagerfeld and his longtime sound designer Michel Gaubert’s greatest hits. The storied French fashion house has partnered with Apple Music to release Chanel Show Soundtracks, a compilation of curated playlists from previous seasons, as well as playlists compiled by the label’s celebrity fans like Pharrell Williams, Sébastien Tellier, and Caroline de Maigret, among others.
This is a first for Chanel, but not such a surprising move considering how important a role music has played for the label. Now, thanks to the partnership with Apple Music, we can all imagine what it’s like to sit inside one of Lagerfeld’s whimsical runway show venues and listen to music played in the tune of a double C.
