Visual Diary: Hangzhou Through The Eyes of Chanel Model Yilan Hua
Take us back to Hangzhou, already.
Last December, Chanel staged its breathtaking, star-studded 2024/25 Metiers d’art show on the historic West Lake in Hangzhou, China (we witnessed it in person and you can read all about it here.) For model Yilan Hua who strode the runway that evening, the occasion was extra-momentous: The 24-year-old was born in Hangzhou and in fact took part in a fashion show by the lake as a child as part of a school project. “That was when the idea of becoming a model was first planted in my mind,” she says.
Model Yilan Hua on the runway of the Chanel 2024/25 Metiers d’art show staged on West Lake in Hangzhou
An annual affair since 2002, Chanel’s Metiers d’Art showcase is meant to spotlight not only the expertise of the maison’s artisanal workshops, but also places with a special connection to Coco Chanel. For this edition, which hits boutiques in the middle of this year, the relationship begins with the largest antique coromandel screen she acquired in her lifetime.
Still standing in her apartment on Rue Cambon in Paris, it features an elaborate engraving of Hangzhou, or more specifically West Lake, and is said to have been the favourite of all the Chinese lacquered screens Chanel collected. And not unlike the French luxury maison, Hangzhou also shares a rich heritage in artisanal crafts with its history in silk-making that dates back to the Qing Dynasty.
Coco Chanel never travelled to China, but fell in love with it after discovering an antique coromandel screen featuring an engraving of West Lake in Hangzhou. It remains in her apartment in Paris and was featured in the short film created to introduce the Chanel 2024/25 Metiers d’art show and that stars Tilda Swinton.
Now besides getting Hangzhou native Yilan Hua – one of the most fast-rising Chinese models in recent years – to walk the show, Chanel has gotten the 24-year-old model to share her side of this picturesque Chinese city that’s often nicknamed “Paradise on earth”. “Even though I’ve grown up, my home, the people, and the scenery of this city seem untouched by time,” she says.
“Every weekend and holiday when growing up, I’d look forward to my mum taking me to play around West Lake, from the youth center near Hubin Road to Huanglong Cave, or walking from Hefang Street to the scenic spot known as Orioles Singing in the Willows. Just spreading a cloth on the ground for a simple picnic by the lake would make me incredibly happy.”
Scroll on for an exclusive peek at her visual diary of Hangzhou shot together with Chanel.
