Kyle Roczniak

The recent staging of Chanel’s illustrious Metiers D’art on Manchester’s own Thomas Street has left many dazzled by the glitz of fashionable high society. Yet, this is no symbol of social prosperity. It should be seen as a symbol of gentrification and a sign that Manchester has become desirable to the international elite. This to me is a dangerous atmosphere that has been growing in Manchester for a while now – we need more social housing not more skyscrapers. A French production team and the brief nature of the event has hardly allowed Mancunians to thrive economically. A multi-million-pound event in a city gripped by homelessness borders on insulting. The presence of this event in Manchester is perhaps not a result of our cultural climate, but the culture of wealth spawning in the penthouses littered across town.

Chanel cited our musical talent as its reason for choosing Manchester which is a fair statement but is reductive. The cultural exports of Mancunians span a beautiful wealth of art, literature, science and politics beyond our most famous chart toppers. Chanel does not reflect the wholesome paintings of L.S. Lowry, the terrifying literary prowess of Anthony Burgess, the invention of graphene, the first computer for goodness’ sake!

Following a long weekend in the company of her lover, the Duke of Westminster, Coco Chanel became enthralled by the wholesome tweeds of the Eaton Hall estate where she was staying. Returning to Paris, she took the Tweed to France. It would seem, Chanel owes some of its notoriety to Manchester through this discovery, but we’ve hardly seen credit until this moment.

This sudden attention and weak veneration of Manchester’s culture is somewhat complementary, but Thomas Street should not simply be a canvas. Footage on the ground from Thomas Street doesn’t particularly inspire your creativity either. A large fawning audience with their phones glued to the brisk procession (the whole event only lasting 15 minutes) suggests that this event was purely for social media bragging rights. There were more people gathered in the car park outside the show than were actually in attendance.

The fact is fashion is an elitist industry that presses weighty expectations into all of our minds and squeezes standards of beauty. This event is perhaps the epitome of that sentiment, an experience billed to uplift an entire community yet is exclusive by nature and guarded by armed police. We aren’t being done any favours by Chanel. Essentially a French fashion conglomerate has come to Manchester, shut down one of our streets and commandeered a once public swimming bath for a private afterparty.

As the eyes of the world fall upon Manchester we must remember not to gush over the generosity of an international corporation. We generated this reputation for culture and style by ourselves, through the collective efforts of the hard-working Mancunians that literally built this city. Validation from any brand let alone one with roots embedded in Nazi Germany (and a recent $4 million donation to Israel) should certainly be treated with trepidation.

We cannot allow our city to be commodified. Manchester is not a trend.