Show dips into lucrative holiday market with butter-yellow, lilac and gold lamé outfits reflecting beauty of the backdrop

Chanel has a fresh-faced, avant garde new designer but it still stands for classic glamour. This was the loud and clear messaging at the first Chanel show since Matthieu Blazy took up his role. The show was held at Villa d’Este, the Lake Como palace hotel where Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich holidayed and which Alfred Hitchcock, who filmed The Pleasure Garden there, pronounced the most beautiful place on earth.

The location, booked a year in advance, provided the theme: life in a grand hotel. Think White Lotus on Lake Como, art directed by Slim Aarons. First on to the pebbled catwalk weaving through the hotel’s terrace was a white bathrobe-style coat. Then there were capri pants in the butter yellow of the hotel parasols, and a lilac tweed suit to match the wisteria trailing overhead. Models swung tote bags big enough for pool towels, while gold lamé cover-ups glinted as dazzling as sun on the lake.