Thomas Street is fashionable in a hip, historic, down-to-earth, Mancunian kind of way.
There are bars and boutiques, as well as an old-fashioned jeweller’s, a Thai massage salon, and a tattoo parlor. There are some half-demolished workshops, and the whole Northern Quarter has a layer of grit and graffiti.
It may not exactly be chic, but for Paris luxury fashion house Chanel, this road has a certain je ne sais quoi.
The company has chosen it as the location for several hundred celebrities and fashionistas to attend the Metiers d’Art show on Thursday.
- Chanel models turn Manchester street into catwalk
The star-studded event, which has previously been held in Paris, New York, and Rome, is one of the fashion calendar’s highlights. Last year, it was held in Dakar, Senegal.
Manchester has now been added to this list.
Manchester was chosen because it is “one of the most effervescent cities of pop culture and an avant-garde city, whose bands spanning all genres have changed the history of music,” according to Chanel.
According to a video posted by Manchester’s Finest, the invitation comes with a 12in vinyl record, a Manchester-themed Chanel scarf, and a magazine in which the iconic road sign from TV soap opera Coronation Street sign has been redesigned to say Chanel St.
The invitation also features imagery from the legendary Hacienda nightclub and Factory Records, as well as a photograph of Manchester-born suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.
The city’s also famous for its rain. To protect the models and guests, a long, high glass canopy has been erected over a 115m stretch of the street, and the forecast indicates that they will avoid the recent sub-zero temperatures.
“Manchester in December!” While inspecting the preparations, one onlooker remarks sarcastically, “Good idea!”
Besides the weather, all the talk is about which celebrities will turn up.
The likes of Pharrell Williams, Lily-Rose Depp and Kristen Stewart have been regulars at the Metiers d’Art in recent years, while Timothee Chalamet and Riley Keough are new Chanel brand ambassadors.
Former Manchester residents David and Victoria Beckham are popular suggestions, with others ranging from Beyonce and Kim Kardashian to local heroes Liam Gallagher and Gail from Corrie.
“The most fun part is hearing rumors about who is going to be there – which Hollywood bigwigs are coming down,” says Alistair Shipman, who is mixing cocktails at Luck Lust Liquor & Burn on the corner of Thomas St.
Half of the bar has been covered by barriers and Shipman isn’t especially impressed by the activity outside.
“It is been a bit of a hassle trying to get in and out of work and moving bins and stuff like that,” he says. “I am personally uninterested in it.”
Outside, people pause to take photos as workers paint the Chanel logo on the side of a convenience store that sells “discount beer, wine, and hard liquor.”
“I think it is brilliant,” one bystander remarks. “I have seen it on a lot of Manchester sites and Instagram pages.”
“You read that all of the hotels will be full.” All the nice hotels, anyway. It can only be good because of the money it will bring in.”
In another nearby shop, a worker points out the disparity between the wealth that will be on show and the poverty in the area.
“There will be A-list celebrities there, but they will most likely clean up the city and make it appear that there are no homeless people in this area.” “But there are many,” he says.
Indeed, the edginess that Chanel has embraced implies that there are problems, which you would not have to look far in the Northern Quarter to see signs of.
Chanel’s choice of location is presumably also connected to Manchester’s history at the heart of the textiles trade.
One of the derelict buildings on Thomas St was saved from demolition because it is a rare example of weavers’ small-scale workshop dwellings built during the city’s industrial revolution in the 18th century.
Manchester has retained its place in the industry, but is more commonly associated with fast fashion brands such as Boohoo and Missguided, which have their headquarters there, rather than luxury labels.
It also has the largest concentration of fashion students and undergraduates in the UK outside London, as well as smaller-scale designers, says Miles Lambert, curator of the new fashion gallery at Manchester Art Gallery.
“It is certainly not known as an uber-fashionable town in the high-end sense,” he says.
“However, it has a very vibrant street fashion scene, as well as a plethora of amazing little creative enclaves where people make things.” It’s not big scale but I guess it does feed into high-end fashion.”
There is currently a major exhibition about Coco Chanel at the V&A Museum in London, while the Manchester fashion gallery has an exhibition called Unpicking Couture, featuring a 1983 Chanel boucle suit from Karl Lagerfeld’s first runway show for the house.
Lambert describes Manchester as “very different” from Paris. “Perhaps they are also tempted by that.”
“You are in an edgy, creative neighborhood. And I think it is seen as a city that is going places and has been for a while.”
