What would winter be without tweed? Cold, that’s for sure. But not to worry, the frost won’t bite back this year because for AW22, Chanel had the classical cold-weather antidote in its pocket. Now, as house’s latest campaign makes the rounds, the woven wool material will forever be frozen in the autumnal air, captured by the legendary photography duo Inez and Vinoodh in a partite shoot.

Stepping up to centre stage, Rianne Van Rompaey infiltrates the frames, her elegant disposition defining the mood. With her bewitching, fiery-red hair; tweedy twinsets, bucket hats and bags; sling-back kitten heels or thigh-high wellies; knitted frocks, cardigans, gloves and elongated stockings; and little leather shift dresses adorned with extravagantly layered jewellery; the spirit of the 1960s art house ingénue flows throughout.

Casting a light on the various facets of tweed – the beating heart of Chanel – supple dresses, smart suits, and timeless overcoats cocoon Van Rompaey’s figure. Virginie Viard dedicated the entire February show to the fabric, presenting the lavish garms inside a ‘tweed’ arena, where from floor to ceiling, and even where the audience sat, everything was covered in the soft stuff. The rough textile has pretty much always been an emblem of the Paresisan house ever since the late Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel first adopted and revised the country fabric in the roaring twenties. Perhaps, then, it’s only fitting that one century later the material is taking its rightful place as the pinnacle of timeless textiles, once again.

In bringing the campaign to life, Inez and Vinoodh were guided by the contrast between two of Coco’s preferred places to be, Scotland’s River Tweed and Paris, the City of Love. The photographic pair explain, “We set out to bring the countryside, the Scottish landscape around the River Tweed, into city life.”

We mentioned before that the campaign is a partite photography project; a perfectly juxtaposed pair of shoots – one navigating nature and the other a monochromatic studio setup. Outside, a kaleidoscope of colours willow and wisp in the autumnal breeze, while rich vegetation envelopes the frame. A subtly obscuring mist descends upon the Scottish cottage, statues and all, causing the imagery to feel hazy and shrouded in mystery. Then, in the shadowy, intramural studio, black and white prevailed, casting emphasis on the graphic forms and silhouettes within the portraits to create a duality. Inez and Vinoodh explain: “The garden shots bring the countryside into the city with an emphasis on a magical feminine atmosphere while the studio portraits take her (Van Rompaey) out of the real world and focus on delicate expressions of the Chanel allure.”

Arriving in boutiques late September in Australia, Chanel invites you to take on tweed. But before you start saving and set your reminders to shop, take an exclusive look behind the scenes of the campaign’s making.

Photography by Inez and Vinoodh. View the full Chanel AW22 collection here.

chanel.com