“Devoting the entire collection to tweed is a tribute”, said the artistic director of Chanel, Virginie Viard, about the French house’s collection for this winter. Yet no matter how obvious of a choice it may sounds - paying tribute to tweed in Chanel -, the designer delivered an enchanting, wearable collection, which revealed an inspiration much richer than a simple archive revisit would suggest.

Presented in the dressed-in-tweed Grand Palais Éphémère, the collection was a stroll along the Tweed River in Scotland. The Scottish countryside of the 1920s actually provided Gabrielle Chanel herself with the palette for the tweed fabrics she loved to use for her signature suits.

But this season’s collection was not only about the fabric itself, nor solely about the quintessential role it has played for the identity of the Maison through the decades. The multi-pocket hunting jackets, the oversized men’s jackets, the voluminous trousers, the rubber boots, were a reminder of how Gabrielle Chanel reinvented everyday womenswear by infusing it with elements kept – until her era – exclusively for men. Viard talked about the photos that suggest how this inspiration had come upon Gabrielle: they capture her in the borrowed clothes of her lover, the Duke of Westminster, at his Eaton Hall country house. “There’s nothing sexier than wearing the clothes of the person you love. I’m fascinated by this ever-contemporary gesture,” she noted in the press release.

However, the collection did not only consist of “boyfriend-inspired” tweed pieces; it also had the functionality of urban looks in mind. Channeling the energy of the ‘60s in England, Viard took tweed to the next level, by presenting colorful skirt suits, thick-ribbed tights, and kitten heel slingbacks, combined with volumes and cuts with an ‘80s attitude. The total result, enriched with touches of earthy colored leather and knitted accessories, was not just retro, though covering the style of three decades, but absolutely contemporary, feminine, and real.

The duality of the concept can also be found in the campaign that the dynamic photography duo Inez & Vinoodh has created for the collection. “We set out to bring the countryside, the Scottish landscape around the River Tweed, into city life," they explain, talking about their two shootings for the campaign; the one is dreamy, foggy and colorful, executed outdoors, and the other black and white, and shot in a studio.

Unexpectedly dreamy, familiarly cozy, ingeniously practical: Long live Chanel’s tweed!