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Of all the people I see on the New York City subway every day, Tilda Swinton<\/strong>, Jon Bon Jovi<\/strong>, Meg Ryan<\/strong>, Margaret Qualley<\/strong>, and A$AP Rocky<\/strong><\/a> were not on my bingo card for\u2026 well, ever<\/em>.<\/p>\n Alas, Chanel<\/a> and its new designer, the French-Belgian Matthieu Blazy<\/strong>, invited them\u2014us<\/em>\u2014to descend into a not-so-abandoned subway station in downtown Manhattan with the promise of his much anticipated sophomore show for the label and his first \u201cM\u00e9tiers d\u2019Art\u201d proposal for the brand. Inclement weather be damned: Attendees sat on the side of the impressively tidied subway platform to see the show, and later ventured to Webster Hall for an after party featuring a DJ set by Honey Dijon<\/strong> and double C-shaped pretzels.<\/p>\n \u201cChanel did a better job cleaning up the subway than Eric Adams<\/strong> ever did,\u201d read a friend\u2019s text. He\u2019s right: This subway platform, an inactive stop known as the Old Bowery station, smelled much better than any other in the city, and even featured a very handsome newspaper kiosk attendee (handing out Chanel\u2019s very own La Gazette<\/em>, created for the occasion) and pretend turnstiles for those VICs (very important clients) who\u2019ve possibly never experienced the MTA. (There was a wall-to-wall selfie mirror, too.) The same 500-strong group was treated to a special performance of The Nutcracker<\/em> on Monday night, plus a cocktail pre-f\u00eate at The Frick. Yesterday we were driven to and from the show\u2014to and from the subway<\/em>\u2014in a float of black cars. The whole thing could have been very \u201clet them eat cake\u201d had it not been so charming and earnestly fun.<\/p>\n This very venue has been a movie set and played host to another fashion show before, for Tom Ford<\/strong><\/a> in 2019. Blazy, who lived in the city while working at Calvin Klein, kept it true to form and had his models play the part of classic New Yorkers with a side of whimsy: They jogged to hop on the train, took flirty glances as doors closed, and looked longingly out its windows.<\/p>\n