Nothing is off limits when it comes to Karl Lagerfeld staging a Chanel runway show. Season after season, the creative director defies expectations and transports his audience into a fantasy world via elaborate productions that serve as a backdrop to the collection. Among the memorable Chanel runway show set designs: a mock supermarket stocked with Chanel-branded products, clusters of crystal shards splitting through the ground, and a chic airport terminal complete with check-in counters, boarding gates, and luggage carts. To relive the magical runway experience, feast your eyes on our favorite Chanel runway show set designs ahead of the brand’s Fall 2016 ready-to-wear show.
A larger-than-life spinning carousel boasting quilted bags, camellia flowers, and perfume bottles at Chanel’s Fall 2008 ready-to-wear show.
Karl brought the Arctic to Paris with a glacier imported from Sweden that took center stage for Chanel’s Fall 2010 ready-to-wear show.
Gabriel Chanel was born a Leo. Karl Lagerfeld paid homage to the designer’s astrological sign with a massive lion sculpture at Chanel Fall 2010 Haute Couture.
Designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, the Grand Palais in Paris was transformed into an underwater world for the Chanel Spring 2012 ready-to-wear presentation.
Audiences boarded “Air Chanel”—a mock jumbo jet—to witness the Chanel Spring 2012 Haute Couture collection.
Go big or go home. Models maneuvered around giant crystal clusters at the Chanel Fall 2012 ready-to-wear show.
Seventy-five pieces of Chanel-inspired artwork lined the faux modern art gallery runway for the Chanel Spring 2014 ready-to-wear show.
Who would have thought grocery shopping could be so much fun? Karl Lagerfeld brought supermarket mania to the Chanel Fall 2014 ready-to-wear show.
Guests found their plush floor seats at Chanel Resort 2015 in a vast venue decorated with fake palm trees and gold CC-lattice screens, located on a man-made island (of course) in Dubai.
A chic, feminist protest took place down the Boulevard Chanel runway lined with building façades at the Chanel Spring 2015 ready-to-wear show.
Three hundred flowers were made to decorate the Chanel 2015 Haute Couture runway set that mechanically bloomed.
Guests pulled up a chair to a white, linen-covered table at Brasserie Gabriel at the Chanel Fall 2015 ready-to-wear show.
The Grand Palais in Paris was transformed into an airport terminal for Chanel Spring 2016 ready-to-wear, where every jet-setting detail was splashed with double Cs.
Karl Lagerfeld brought Paris to Rome at the legendary Cinecittà Studios to host the Chanel Métiers d’Art Pre-Fall 2016 show. No detail was overlooked in order to reconstruct a black and white Paris.
A minimal, wooden, mechanical structure that mimicked a doll’s house complete with a pathway surrounded by real grass and a pond served as the backdrop for Chanel Spring 2016 Haute Couture.
