INTO THE FOLD

Seven years ago, French embroidery house Montex combined tiny concrete cubes with pieces of leather, inventing a totally unique fabric for Chanel’s A/W14 haute couture collection. Now Chanel has turned concrete into a sort of fabric once more, with a head-turning new building, designed by French architect Rudy Ricciotti (W*157), which is wrapped in a chrysalis of white concrete threadlike structures.

Located on the northern edge of Paris, the building covers 25,000 sq m on seven floors. It houses 600 people and 11 , the ateliers behind millions of hours of painstaking craftsmanship (embroidering sequins, trimming feathers, (hands), (craftsmanship) and (fashion), and 19 for the arrondissement and Coco Chanel’s birthdate.