Silk roads Chanel hits lavish new heights to lure back Chinese sales

Coco Chanel was an ambitious woman, but even she could not have imagined the scale on which the house she founded now operates.

- Jess Cartner-Morley

This time last year, four blocks of Manchester's Northern Quarter became a Chanel catwalk. For their final show of 2024, Chanel built a black wooden platform spanning the West Lake in Hangzhou, China, to parade this season's tweed suits with the kiss-curl roof of a pagoda sitting atop a crescent moon bridge over glassy water as a dramatic backdrop.

The 6,000-mile journey from Manchester to Hangzhou reflects the global expansion of Chanel, the second largest luxury brand in the world. With global revenue reaching $19.7bn (£15.4bn) in 2023, a rise of 16% on the previous year, Chanel is closing the gap on the market leader, Louis Vuitton.

The show was the most lavish moment in a love-bombing campaign by Chanel aimed at reigniting desire among Chinese consumers, where the luxury market is in slowdown. More than half of the 1,000 guests were top-spending Chinese clients. Such a high-rolling audience is not easily impressed, but few were immune to the flex of the journey by liveried barge that carried guests to seats on a floating stage.

In the heart of one of China's seven ancient capitals, illuminations set the lake ablaze with colour, and to the boom of traditional Chinese drums, models began to traverse the slender catwalk to the stage. At the after-show party, a queue developed next to the Chanel sign, as guests lined up to take selfies.