Chanel wows celebrities with ship for cruise show in Paris

Kristen Stewart, Ralph Fiennes and Margot Robbie all craned their necks up in awe.

A creaking, 330-foot (100-meter) cruise liner — with steaming funnels and gangplanks — was something Chanel's celebrity guests never imagined they'd see moored on the dry land of the French capital, let alone inside the city's Grand Palais.

Model Lily-Rose Depp poses during a photocall before Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Actress Kristen Stewart poses during a photocall before Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A general view of the stage before Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

It was the decor for Chanel's annual Cruise collection Thursday night in Paris in which designer Karl Lagerfeld created a spectacle worthy of a James Cameron movie set.

The show saw the larger-than-life 84-year-old continue to defy expectations in fashion show spending — after earlier shows produced a recreated Eiffel Tower, a space rocket, a supermarket and a forest.

"The bar has been set very high ... The set design in itself blew me away," said Robbie.

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

"It's amazing, but it doesn't surprise me. This is Karl's genius and imagination," said model Lily-Rose Depp. "Everything is just so realistic — down to the light that looks like water, and the smoke and the stars."

The ship took two months to create with an exterior in plywood and a hull made of myriad steel. The gargantuan vessel — named "La Pausa" after house founder Coco Chanel's Southern French villa — was brought to life by lighting mimicking lapping ocean waves and the sound of cawing sea gulls.

The sea theme infused the clothes and was an apt choice for the mid-season show.

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Cruise or "resort" shows — shown by only a handful of the world's fashion houses — were originally conceived to target wealthy women who travelled on cruise ships in the winter. Nowadays, they're used as a lucrative means of re-stimulating fashions in the mid-season lull.

Chanel's show was all about the nautical stripe.

Chic baggy pants opened the show, sporting optical black and white lines.

The motif was based on the razzle dazzle designs painted on U.S. and British warships from World War I to camouflage them from German U-Boats. The stripes appeared down layered sleeves on two-piece skirts and in technicolor across white sporty dresses.

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

A model presents a creation during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Styles from the Sixties also were a key element in the relaxed 87-piece collection. White berets met sexy exposed midriffs, miniskirts and loose white sweaters that were cut with a retro bateau collar. Mary Janes — one-strap shoes — were also given a cool reworking in silver and white, and some had rubber soles.

Robbie — whose star is rising since her recent Academy Award nomination for "I, Tonya" and who has recently been named a Chanel brand ambassador — used this trip to Paris to learn more about the Parisian couture house.

Models present creations during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Models present creations during Chanel's Cruise 2018/2019 fashion collection presented in Paris, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

"First, I went to the archives and really got to understand the brand on a whole new level and understand really learn about Coco Chanel's story, and how it influenced her designs," she said.

Stewart came to the Paris show en route to this month's Cannes Film Festival in southern France where she will serve as one of its jury members.

"Cannes is a place that values the reason why people make movies that aligns with the reason that I do," said the 28-year-old "Twilight" star. "I feel like a little kid walking into something I'm not allowed."

The ship, which conjured up images of the French Riviera, also bowled Stewart over.

"Their shows are always like walking into a very elaborate dream," she said.

After the show, VIP guests filed through the gangplanks into the ship's hull for the after-party and baptized the ship in Champagne until the wee hours Friday.

PARIS (AP) — With the Paris Olympic Games 100 days away, police carried out a large-scale eviction at France's biggest squat in the south of the country's capital. Authorities, including dozens of gendarmes, cleared out the makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine on Wednesday.

The camp had become home to about 450 migrants, with images of the eviction spreading rapidly across social media.

Aid workers are concerned that the broader effort by Paris authorities to clear out migrants and other people sleeping rough in the city before the summer Olympics is troubling, as those evicted are not provided longer-term housing assistance.

“The squat was the biggest in France. It doubled in size in one year because of the Olympics. Last year, authorities cleared out migrants from nearby the Olympic Village, and many displaced people came here,” said Paul Alauzy of the humanitarian organization Médecins du Monde, who has been closely following the steady pace of evictions over two years.

The conditions inside the warehouse were cramped, Alauzy said.

The clearance operation will continue over several days. The site is empty: 150 people left the night before the police arrived, while 300 were evicted before 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Among the 450 were 20 children and 50 women, the aid group said.

This action is part of a broader push by local authorities to dismantle makeshift camps as the city prepares to host the Olympics from July 26 to Aug. 11.

Advocacy groups working with the homeless and other vulnerable populations have been voicing their concerns for months. They have been particularly vocal about the accelerated pace of camp clearances as the Games approach, warning of the dire consequences for those who find themselves without shelter.

On Wednesday, observers said some five buses were at the site, intended to transport migrants to specially allocated sites in cities such as Orleans or Bordeaux, or in the wider Paris region, Ile-de-France. Other migrants will be bused to temporary filtering sites.

Alauzy said he fears that “it will just be a matter of days or weeks for many of the migrants to be sleeping rough on the street again.”

Umbrella association Revers de la Medaille, French for The Medal’s Other Side, which underscores the harmful effects of the Games on the most precarious populations, said it did “not know where families with school-going children were sent to.”

The fate of these displaced individuals remains a pressing issue as the city gears up for its time in the global spotlight, highlighting the tension between urban beautification efforts and support for marginalized communities.

Earlier this month, French police removed about 50 migrants, including families with young children, from the forecourt of Paris City Hall. The migrants packed their belongings and boarded a bus to temporary government housing in the town of Besançon in eastern France.

Responding to a question about Wednesday's evacuation, French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said she wanted “to emphasize is that it has nothing to do with the Olympics.”

“These policies, they were implemented before the Games, they will be implemented after the Games,” she said. "And we want to handle those difficult situations with the best possible humanity. This is why we work with the aid groups. We really want to make things as fair as they can be.”

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton and Jerome Pugmire contributed to this report.

This photo provided by the Collectif Acces au Droit, shows riot police officers lining up, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 in Vitry-sur-Seine, outside Paris. With the Paris Olympic Games 100 days away, police carried out a large-scale eviction at France's biggest squat in the south of the capital. Authorities, including dozens of gendarmes, cleared out the makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine. (@CAD_asso Collectif Acces au Droit via AP)

This photo provided by the Collectif Acces au Droit, shows riot police officers outside a squat Wednesday, April 17, 2024 in Vitry-sur-Seine, outside Paris. With the Paris Olympic Games 100 days away, police carried out a large-scale eviction at France's biggest squat in the south of the capital. Authorities, including dozens of gendarmes, cleared out the makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine. (@CAD_asso, Collectif Acces au Droit via AP)

FILE - Migrants stand in front of the Paris City Hall, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Earlier this month, French police removed about 50 migrants, including families with young children, from the forecourt of Paris City Hall. The migrants packed belongings and boarded a bus to temporary government housing in the town of Besançon in eastern France. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga , File)

FILE - A homeless sleeps just next to the Eiffel Tower Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in Paris. With the Paris Games 100 days away, French police carried out a large-scale eviction at an abandoned factory, located on the southern outskirts of Paris in Vitry-sur-Sein on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani , File)