Fashion, Film, and Fiona Apple: Inside Chanel’s Annual Through Her Lens Lunch

On Sept. 16, New York was at a crossroads. It was the last day of New York Fashion Week, and just 10 days until the New York Film Festival. Perfectly parked right at the intersection was, of course, Chanel.

Tuesday afternoon, the house hosted their annual luncheon at Locanda Verde in New York City to celebrate Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program, now in its tenth year. “10 years ago, when Paula Weinstein and I launched Through Her Lens with Chanel, we thought we were starting a program. But what we were really starting was a movement,” Tribeca Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal said in her opening remarks. “We built a network, a home, and a family… and collected a few new girlfriends along the way. Our alumni open doors for one another, champion each other’s work, and prove what we’ve always known: the barrier has never been about talent—it’s access.”

The lunch, held at Locanda Verde, brought together over 100 women in the creative field, from actors and musicians, to directors, writers, producers, and more. Among the attendees clad in their best Chanel were Havana Rose Liu, Cazzie David, Lily Allen, Francesca Scorsese, Lucy Liu, and Ilana Glazer; as well as Kaitlyn Dever, Meghann Fahy, and Sarah Paulson, coming straight from the Emmys in Los Angeles less than 48 hours prior. The dress code for the event was a nod to fall, with David and Phoebe Tonkin both in chic black leather, while Liu and Dever admired their matching denim jeans. But as for the best dressed of the occasion? That had to go to Tessa Thompson, pairing classic silk shorts and Coco Crush jewelry with a vintage Fiona Apple t-shirt.

Here, a closer look inside the event.