In Cuba, socialites rout the socialists

Fashionistas and celebrities from around the world flocked to a grand Havana colonial avenue which was transformed into a private runway for French fashion house Chanel.

With hundreds of security agents holding ordinary Cubans behind police lines streets away, actors Tilda Swinton and Vin Diesel, supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Cuban music stars Gente de Zona and Omara Portuondo watched slender models sashay down Prado boulevard in casual summer clothes seemingly inspired by the art deco elegance of pre-revolutionary Cuba.

With the heart of the Cuban capital briefly privatised by an international corporation under the watchful eye of the Cuban state, the premiere of Chanel’s 2016/2017 ‘cruise’ line offered a startling sight in a country officially dedicated to social equality and the rejection of material wealth.