CHANEL TRITON: KARL'S NEW TOY

Last July the fashion world was abuzz with two sneaked photos (by Stéphane Feugére) of a custom-built Triton being used as a prop for Chanel's press kit for their 2010 Spring collection, 'Starting Point', at their Rue Royale boutique in Paris, during Fashion Week.

While vintage motorcycles are regularly used to give high-fashion advertising a cachet of authenticity, nostalgia, and a little bad-boy chic, the Triton used by Chanel went much farther down the Branding trail than we've ever seen from the houses of haute couture: the motorcycle is Chanel all over, from the large cutout logo on the upswept exhaust heat shield, to much smaller details such as gas caps and fork seal retaining rings, which have been shaped to mimic the current crop of Chanel watch bezels, while the speedo itself looks like a Chanel watch. The address of Coco Chanel's apartment, 31 Rue Cambon, is emblazoned on the Featherbed frame (surrounded by a midnight-with-starry-sky paint job) - perhaps more immediately a reference to the new Chanel magazine of the same name. And 'Chanel' supplants 'Triumph' on the engine cases!

Models Lara Stone and Baptiste Giacobini were draped all over the bike, which they didn't ride (too bad, I hear from it's creators that it sounds great and goes like stink). Karl Lagerfeld, the infamous Creative Director of Chanel, was content to pose near his new motorcycle, which, unfortunately, he has no intention of reproducing. While used as a prop for advertising, the Chanel Triton was built to run... and methinks one day, when an Art Director has barked his shin once too many times on that damn bike, some lucky fellow will indeed take it home and ride it.

In the now-it-can-almost-be-told category, I've added two few further glimpses of the machine, which is built, according to the WWD press on the bike, 'in Toulouse' (which I can confirm), by several gentlemen with great creative and technical skills, whose work has graced the pages of the Vintagent in previous posts. Look for it soon, not in Classic Bike, but on the pages of Vogue.