Inside the Chanel Couture Atelier

It’s the day before Chanel’s haute couture autumn/winter 2015 collection is shown and in the eves of the company’s famous Rue Cambon headquarters, with its black, beige and mirrored interior, is a warren of rather more modest spaces. They’re painted bright white, flooded with natural light and furnished with nothing more attention seeking than rows of small sewing tables. Around them, quietly and with complete focus, the petites mains – literally translated as small hands -…