Illness: German-Born Designer and Books

illness: The theme served to provide a sense of continuity for Viard's couture debut -- but it was a display that proved the relatively-unknown 57-year-old can hold her own, according to CTV. Here are some highlights of Tuesday's fall-winter couture collections, including celebrity-magnet Armani Prive. ------ BOOKISH CHANEL Lagerfeld's personal library of around 300,000 books, with its several librarians, featured prominently during a poignant memorial for him last month. For Viard's first-ever solo couture show, both Chanel, the woman, and Lagerfeld, the house's longtime German-born designer who died in February, were invoked through their well-known passion for books. It's an illness, I'm not afraid to admit it, he once said. Viard did not need a crutch to sell her couture, however. So, it was a touching gesture by Viard -- his longtime head of studio -- to keep his memory alive at the Chanel fall-winter couture show by creating a two-level library in the Grand Palais, bursting with tomes of classic French writers such as Baudelaire and Verlaine on wooden shelves, to display the designs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.