Chanel at Grand Palais — CHANEL S/S 2020 Ready-to-Wear Show (2019)

The Grand Palais hosted CHANEL’s S/S 2020 ready-to-wear show, whose runway recreated Parisian zinc rooftops inside the hall.

The venue

The Grand Palais is a historic exhibition hall with a vast steel-and-glass nave on the Right Bank of Paris, near the Champs-Élysées. Built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, it is used for art exhibitions, fairs and large-scale cultural events. Its high vaulted roof and open floor create a covered city-scale interior that can be reconfigured for temporary installations and runway shows.

How the space was used

Inside the nave, the show recreated a Parisian rooftop landscape as the runway: zinc roof surfaces, walkways, chimneys and classic skylights formed the set. Models moved across this raised roofscape rather than a conventional flat catwalk, so the audience looked onto a compressed city skyline under the hall’s glass roof. The installation occupied the central event floor and turned the hall into a staged urban exterior.

Why it works here

The Grand Palais suits large fashion shows because its clear-span nave can hold a constructed environment while keeping the event indoors and central. Its glass roof and monumental scale allow spectacle without competing with the set, and its central Paris location makes it a recurring venue for cultural and fashion presentations.