Peter Saville designs record sleeve for Chanel’s Métiers d’art Manchester show

Iconic British graphic designer Peter Saville has created the invitation, a vinyl record –  for Chanel’s blockbuster Métiers d’art show held in Manchester – The show that impressibly shut down Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

The four-track record ‘curated’ by longtime Chanel collaborator Michel Gaubert, featured songs from the city’s musicians including New Order, David Holmes and The Fall.

‘I had never thought that one day I would curate a compilation about Manchester for Chanel, with Peter Saville creating the artwork for it,’ said the French sound engineer, who revealed the dotted cover sleeve – which reads ‘Chanel MCR’ – on Instagram just before the show’s start. ‘But here it is.’

Viard – who took over creative direction of the house in the wake of Karl Lagerfeld’s death in 2019  has instilled more of the liberated spirit of house founder Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel for inspiration and has been inspired by the regions music and arts scene. Here, she said that she was inspired not only by the house founder’s longtime links to the locale – nicknamed ‘Cottonopolis’, Manchester’s vast industrial factories were some of the foremost fabric producers, which Chanel used in her collections – but also the energy of the city’s music scene.

Saville was of course a fitting choice; Born in Manchester in 1955  he would go on to work closely with Factory Records, the label that imprinted some of the era’s most influential bands such as Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. The labels venue HQ would become better known as ‘The Factory’ for which Saville would create the flyer designs and of  later the record sleeves for its most famous releases.

Saville’s simplistic sensibility in design is echoed in the collection; complemented with vibrant and classic Coco Chanel use of colour and 60’s nipped silhouettes. Looks that were completed with baker boy hats (also in tweed), camellia-flower rosettes, and stitched or ruffled trims.