Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel Paris show is classily restrained, meticulously detailed

Legendary designer and bibliophile Karl Lagerfeld made a pitch for immortality on Tuesday by setting his very Parisian Chanel haute couture show in front of a replica of the Académie française.

The venerable institution, whose members are known as “the immortals”, was the backdrop for the spectacular set featuring the banks of the Seine that Lagerfeld had built inside the Grand Palais in the French capital.

Everything from the bouquinistes’ stands with their vintage Vogue magazines and books eulogising Chanel, to the Paris pavements and lamp posts was recreated in staggeringly realistic detail.

All it lacked to pass for the real thing was the tourist tat and a few beggars.

Lagerfeld even roped in his godsons Hudson and Jameson Kroenig to play riverside booksellers along with their father, the square-jawed American model Brad Kroenig.

All, of course, were dressed in Chanel.

Lagerfeld told reporters later that he can see the Quai Voltaire and the academies that act as the guardians of French culture from his windows.