Chanel at Grand Palais — Chanel FW19/20 Haute Couture Show (2019)

The Grand Palais hosted Chanel's Fall/Winter 2019/20 haute couture show, staged inside a circular library built within its glass-roofed nave.

The venue

The Grand Palais is a Beaux-Arts exhibition hall on the edge of the Champs-Élysées in Paris's 8th arrondissement. Its central nave, covered by a vast glass and steel vault, gives the building a single large interior volume used year-round for art fairs, exhibitions and fashion presentations. Galleries and side halls ring the nave, and the stone facade faces the Petit Palais across the avenue.

How the space was used

For the Fall/Winter 2019/20 haute couture show, the nave was built out as a circular library: tiered shelving of books arranged in a ring, a pale floor, and walkways threading between the stacks. Guests were seated around the perimeter facing inward, so models circled through the library and between the shelving instead of walking a straight runway. The books formed the only set.

Why it works here

The nave's clear span and high vault let a brand construct a complete interior — here a freestanding circular structure — without touching the building's fabric. The Grand Palais already carries a long record of art and design presentations, and its central Paris location sits within reach of the maison's couture clients and press.