We had the most unbelievable time in Dubai with Chanel! The Chanel Cruise Collection was the most magical experience and the most special 2 days we've ever had. We were on a fairy tale whirlwind with Karen, the fashion director of Chanel Canada, who is the coolest! We had the best time together experiencing Dubai. We arrived there late at night to our hotel, The Downtown Palace which was fabulous! The rooms were beautiful and they had Chanel scarves and mint lemon drinks waiting for us, which were really beautiful and refreshing. We ended up drinking them for the rest of the trip to stay cool because it was 40 degree Celsius everyday! (The recipe is- lemon, mint leaves, ice, sugar kane and throw it in a blender!) So obsessed!We went to bed dreaming about our next day in Dubai.
The next morning we woke up and headed to breakfast. The Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) was our view which was quite surreal. We then headed to the Emirates Mall to see the brand new Chanel store. It was so stunning and we saw the most gorgeous Chanel beaded handbags and crystal couture sweaters. We walked around and checked out The Ski Dubai which we were tempted to do, but didn't have enough time! It looked like so much fun to ski in a mall..lol! We then got picked up from the mall and headed down to this amazing vegetarian restaurant in The Bastakiya (Old town) and went to The XVA Art Café and had a yummy chickpea walnut salad. The JBR beach is supposed to be the beach to go to in Dubai, so we headed over there to meet some cute camels and to put our feet in the warm water. We wanted to fit everything in, so we were running around like crazy before our Welcome Cocktail Party at our hotel. We met lots of really amazing people at the party and then headed to Roberto's for dinner where we pigged out on the most delicious pasta and chocolate cake. We went to bed not believing how much we fit into one day, and couldn't wait for the next day to come... THE SHOW!!!
We woke up the next day super excited to check out The Burj Khalifa! So we headed over to the Dubai Mall (largest mall in the world) because it's connected to the Mall and headed up there! We couldn't believe how fast the elevator was! It is the tallest building in the world and it took less than 6 minutes to get to the top. We learned all about the history and how it took 6 years to build and over 22 million man hours of work. It was mesmerizing staring through the glass and seeing how big Dubai looks and how quickly it's being built up. It was also sooo hot up there! We did a photo shoot with Karen on the green screen and got some crazy pics of us scaling the Burj Khalifa, just like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible... lol! We then checked out the Chanel store in The Dubai Mall and fell in love with all the staff who work there... everyone is just sooo nice! The Chanel pop up store in The Level Shoe District was sooo amazing! It is an insane place to go if you looooove shoes! You can spend hours in there! We have never seen so many shoes in our life!!
Later we headed for some lunch over to beachy, chic Comptoir 102 which was near Jumeriah Beach. We were meeting up with the editors from Fashion Magazine, Elle Canada and Elle Quebec and we had the most delicious vegetarian food! I mean.... probably one of the best salads And it had the most amazing ambiance. We could have been in St. Tropez or Ibiza. We called our table, Team Canada!
We then headed back to our hotel and got our hair done and got ready for The Chanel Cruise Dubai Show.
We left our hotel around 4:45pm super excited and decked in Ashish and Chanel. We headed over to the docks to get on to the boats to get to The Island! The boat was a traditional boat called an Abra, and it brought us to the island. It was a wooden boat with a flag and our boat had the most fabulous women decked head to toe in Chanel. You could hear peoples hearts pounding with excitement. When you looked at the sand closely, you could see Chanel imprints from everyone's shoes! We all heard about this special Island that Chanel was working on for the last few months, and the anticipation was killing us! They had to bring everything over by boats and build the structure for the show to create this amazing building. When we got to the island we followed this path that was surrounded with lights, tents and refreshments. The building was a masterpiece! We all gasped when we saw it. A building covered in the "CC" logos! We went in to the building and the light was pouring in through the glass and created "CC"shadows on the ceiling which was so gorgeous and somewhat romantic. There were Palm trees that touched the ceiling, lantern lit low tables, and it felt like we were in an extravagant Arabia pioneered by Karl. The ambiance was opulent and Middle Eastern, but in an island way. We found our seats and sat down on our sofa, which was the perfect spot for viewing the show. The show was about to start!
The guest list was fabulous and Chanel invited 1000 people to the show including Vanessa Paradis, Dakota Fanning, Alice Dellal, Freida Pinto and Tilda Swinton. We chatted with Tilda later who is sooo AWESOME, and also has twins too.. how cute!!!
The show was filled with bright color patterns, print on print textiles, curly big hair, princess crowns, glow in the dark shoes, big ruffled loose pants and even a petrol quilted handbag! The oversized embroidered Dubai skyline pieces were out of this word. It was really special because we were just at the Burj Khalifa that day, and here it was embroidered on the dresses and tops. They were total masterpieces. It was a truly special show seeing Dubai through Karl's eyes! The gold leaf makeup and big curly hair was exquisite and over the top but went perfectly with the Middle Eastern feel of the show. The accessories were to die for! Every model had an a diamond watch with diamond bracelets and Chanel moon tiaras. Karl is a total genius! The show was beautiful, opulent, fun, so colorful and gorgeous! Karl came out to do some interviews, and the party then the after party officially started! Janelle Monae went up on stage and we danced the night away with Karen and had the BEST TIME EVER! It was truly one of the best nights of our life! We went back to our hotel and packed up our suitcases, and in the next few hours we were on a plane heading home. It all felt like a Chanel dream!
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