SALZBURG, Austria — Mugs of mulled wine awaited guests arriving at a dinner Karl Lagerfeld hosted Monday on the eve of Chanel’s Paris-Salzburg show in this picturesque Alpine city. And with good reason. It was an open-air affair on a damp, chilly night for the debut of the designer’s mini-film, “Reincarnation,” featuring Pharrell Williams and Cara Delevingne waltzing and singing their way through an episode in the life of Gabrielle Chanel.
Lagerfeld donned a traditional Austrian jacket for the occasion, and wound a scarf around his neck as he negotiated the crowd.
Rooney Mara wore a gray Chanel couture dress with concrete buttons, and seemed impervious to the chill. “Actually, I’m freezing,” she confessed.
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Asked about the unusual buttons, she replied: “The dress I’m wearing tomorrow [for the show] is all concrete. I’m going to weigh myself.”
The actress is on a break from filming until January, when she starts Jim Sheridan’s adaptation of “The Secret Scripture,” set during the World War II.
After the screening, guests shuffled into cozy St. Peter Stiftskeller, billed as one of Europe’s oldest restaurants. Alice Dellal arrived with a camera slung around her neck, and said she’s been taking photos since she was 15. She recently set up a darkroom at home and “I’m going to archive it all and make books. I might also eventually be making some leather jackets. That’s my latest design project.”
The seven-course dinner — stretching from roasted saddle of venison and pumpkin cream soup to a melt-in-your-mouth Salzburger Nockerl dessert — was comfort food extraordinaire.