Chanel held an event on Tuesday night for their J12 watch series, taking over the function hall of the Asia Society. Although the main attraction was meant to be an installation of 365 small screens, what really got our attention was a Chanel surfboard!
Apparently, the Chanel surfboard has actually been around since 2010, and comes in several different colors. The fact that it exists at all is an interesting cultural role reversal.
Back in the mid 1980’s surfwear / streetwear pioneer Stussy mimicked the interlocking Chanel ‘C’ logo with their own double ‘S’ logo (as seen in the shirt below).
By creating a Chanel surfboard, the reference has come full circle!
On the back of the board is the signature of Philippe Barland, a surfboard shaper based in France, who has apparently been active for over 50 years!
For more photos of Chanel surfboards, have a look at the dozens of images on Tumblr.
Chanel J12 365 installation
To celebrate the launch of the newest Chanel J12 watch collection, the room was encircled by 365 small screens, each sporting an image with a word or phrase captioned with a #hashtag. The campaign is meant to show that the watch can be worn for all occasions throughout the year.
The open space was given the Chanel makeover with everything covered in white. Scattered inside the circular interior were a few installation items on display. One was a white bench with an old Apple laptop computer dipped in white (sort of like the Natalia Brilli treatment.)
The bench, which cast an interesting shadow, was a wonderful metaphor for the passage of time.
Fashionable guests stood around checking out the 365 screens, and a few celebrities posed for photos.
Celebrity model / singer / entrepreneur Rosemary Vandenbroucke posed with the surfboard.
