Unbroken spell

Rows of white sheets drip-drying on washing lines in the sun, gravel below sprinkled with water marks and a soapy scent wafting through the air – this may seem like an incongruous setting for a Chanel haute couture show. And yet it was the scene that greeted guests as they filed into the Grand Palais in Paris for the house’s haute couture spring/summer ’20 show. In the centre of the space was a romantically overgrown garden, a replica of the cloister grounds at Aubazine, the ancient Cistercian abbey in south-western France where Gabrielle Chanel and her sisters were sent by