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Pharrell Williams as Emperor Franz Joseph

The Local Austria
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Pharrell Williams as Emperor Franz Joseph
Pharrell Williams and Cara Delevingne. Photo: Olivier Saillant

Karl Lagerfeld will stage Chanel’s latest Métiers d’art collection in Salzburg next week, and his accompanying film stars Pharrell Williams and British model Cara Delevingne as reincarnations of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth, popularly known as Sisi. (Updated with released film)

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Williams composed an original track for the film - CC the World - and sings it with Delevingne.

Reincarnation, a seven minute short, re-enacts a key episode in Gabrielle Chanel’s life.


The short film was released on December 1st.  Photo: Youtube/Lagerfeld

While visiting an Austrian resort in 1954, the designer (played by Geraldine Chaplin) is inspired by a jacket worn by the hotel’s elevator operator, portrayed by Williams.

That style, with contrasting trim and pockets, would go on to become the famous Chanel jacket. 

In an extended dream sequence, Pharrell is reincarnated as Franz Joseph I while Delevingne plays Sisi.

“It’s not meant to be a historical reconstruction or something heavy like that. This is light and funny,” Lagerfeld said in an interview with WWD in Paris last week. He added that he sent the Happy singer “all kinds of Viennese music” to get him into the spirit of the project.

The period set, designed to look like an Austrian hunting lodge with its decorative antlers, was constructed in Luc Besson’s Paris studios, with a cast of more than 60 extras.

The short film will be released on December 1st, a day ahead of the Paris-Salzburg fashion show at the Schloss Leopoldskron.


Photo: Karl Lagerfeld

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