FIRST CAME US President Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones. And on Tuesday – yesterday Bangkok time – global fashion’s glitterati, including supermodel Gisele Bundchen, descended on Cuba for Chanel’s runway show extravaganza.

Chanel became the first major fashion house to send models down the catwalk in Cuba, highlighting warming relations with the West. The exclusive show was also a reminder of new inequalities on the communist-ruled island.

Karl Lagerfeld, who has been at Chanel’s creative helm since 1983, said his latest inter-seasonal cruise collection was inspired by the “cultural richness and opening up of Cuba”.

Former Cold War foes, the US and Cuba formally agreed to restore diplomatic relations last July. Cuba has since improved relations with other Western nations.

Chanel fashion chief Bruno Pavlovsky said the label was uncertain at first if it could hold the show, but Cuban authorities had been “very welcoming and helpful”.

Some Cubans have been critical. Chanel goods are not sold there and few people could even dream of affording them, given that even a small handbag costs thousands of dollars. About 70 per cent of Cuban workers are in the pay of the state, with an average salary of $25 per month.

Pavlovsky said it was too early for Chanel, which has fewer than 200 boutiques worldwide, to set up shop in Cuba.

“This is an event for very few people,” said university student Heidi Lopez, 23. “We can’t enjoy it, and even less aspire to buy any product.”

Others say the show is giving their dreams wings to fly. “Chanel is very good quality and also very expensive,” said Marilia Veliz, 44, an accountant and fashion lover who had sewn details like a satin bow onto her brown and cream work uniform.

“Just because I can’t afford it doesn’t mean I want to deny others that luxury. And who knows, maybe one day. It’s important to dream!”

Cuba is fast becoming one of the world’s most fashionable destinations, as tourists and the style-elite seek to savour faded glamour and Caribbean flair before it changes too much.

“Hola Cuba!” Bundchen posted Instagram on Monday, posting a photo of a Havana park that received around 110,000 “likes”.

By showcasing its cruise collection in Cuba, Chanel said it was harking back to the roots of the line originally designed for wealthy Americans holidaying on yachts and cruises in the Caribbean to escape the winter grey.

US cruises to Cuba were forbidden during the country’s stand-off with the United States. On Monday the first US cruise ship to sail to the island since Fidel Castro’s revolution was greeted by cheering local residents.

Lagerfeld, 82, is known for his lavish show sets and in the past has created a mock casino, supermarket and brasserie.

Secrecy shrouded the preparations for his runway in the Paseo del Prado, a leafy promenade. Built in Cuba’s golden era, when it was a wealthy port, colonial colonnades and elegant Art Deco buildings on either side of the boulevard are now in various states of disrepair, although some are being renovated.

The Rolling Stones played a concert in Havana last month following President Obama’s visit. A Hollywood film crew has meanwhile been shooting the latest “Fast and Furious” action movie in the city.

“I think that catwalk is going to be more for Chanel than for Cuba,” said local clothing designer Idania del Rio, 33. “I don’t know whether the people here in Cuba are ready for this type of product.”

Nevertheless she’s curious. “I want to see what $40,000 clothing looks like!”

Cuba’s best-known living designer, Raul Castillo, is also excited about the Chanel event. “It’s a dream to see the work of a designer like Lagerfeld here in socialist Cuba,” he said.

Foreign brands were not available in Cuba until the 1990s, when the market started to open up gradually. “There is nothing uglier than standardisation,” Cuban author Arturo Arango wrote online. “With standardisation comes apathy and alienation. All that leads fatally to ugliness.”

Cubans had to wear imported second-hand clothes purchased at state-run stores. Authorities called it “recycled clothing”, but ordinary Cubans referred to their trips to the official shops as “rag-shopping”.

With its cabarets and casinos frequented by US film stars and gangsters, pre-revolution Cuba had a thriving fashion scene. Then the end of the Soviet era encouraged a rebirth.

“People here know how to sew. There are lots of good designers and people are looking for ways to buy the clothes they want,” said del Rio. But it’s “a very slow recovery”.

For the older designer, Raul Castillo, Cuban fashion “is going through a good moment”. “We are opening to the world,” he said. “It’s very important that Chanel is coming.”

The future of fashion will depend on if and when US lawmakers end the 54-year trade embargo on Cuba – still in place despite the diplomatic thaw.

“When we become a normal country, without the embargo, we will be leaders of fashion,” Castillo predicted.

LET THE scales fall from your eyes…

A French shoe manufacturer is urging fashionistas to take the plunge with what he claims is the world’s first range of trout skin espadrille shoes.

Jean-Jacques Houyou has set out to persuade his compatriots that they should be wearing trout rather than merely eating them with a caper and black butter sauce.

The stack-heeled women’s sandals in seven colours will go on sale in France this summer, selling for around 120 euros (Bt6,000) a pair.

Houyou has sourced salmon trout for the shoes – whose skins he claims are particularly beautiful – from the cold mountain streams of the renowned Banca valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the French Basque country.

All come the Goicoechea family’s fish farm, whose trout are prized by gourmets. And although his company is called Don Quichosse – a play on Don Quixote – Houyou insisted he was not tilting at watermills.

He admitted however that making the espadrilles was an “extremely exacting process, the most difficult thing is to find two skins with the same marks which makes each pair so original,” he told AFP.

“Every pair is different because of the material itself,” he said of the handmade shoes which are lined with goat skin.

Houyou has previously made Japanese-style sandals with salmon skin at his small factory in Mauleon, the centre of France’s espadrille industry.

Most of his 10 shoemakers work in their homes turning out 20,000 pairs of espadrilles a year, which traditionally have soles made of jute.

But he has used cork to sole the trout skin shoes, which come with heels in two heights.

Espadrilles, often made of canvas, can trace their lineage back 4,000 years, and are still hugely popular summer shoes.

They are also much more eco-friendly than mass-market footwear, which is difficult, and sometimes almost impossible to recycle.

Several luxury shoe brands have also embraced what they term “fish leather” for their shoes, with the Spanish designer Manolo Blahnik once creating 800-euros-a-pair sandals for an “eco shoes” range.

The Brazilian label Osklen has also had great success with it salmon skin Arpoador sneakers, which sell for $580. It has previously made shoes from the skin of the Amazonian arapaima fish.

Fish skin boots have been worn for thousands of years by Inuit peoples, and fish skin shoes and handbags were common in Germany during World War II when cow leather ran out.

Environmentalists say that that countless tonnes of tannable fish skins are discarded every year because the public still worries wrongly that they might smell fishy.

SOONTAREE “Angie” Balek has returned from New York fashion society with her famous brand AB by Angelys Balek New York and last week unveiled her spring-summer collection, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, full of winning outfits for the holidays.

The brand – acclaimed for its stunning painted graphics and distinctive modern designs – earned even more fans with the show at Vivarium by Chef Ministry, where the runway took on the lively rhythms of a beach party.

Among the celebrities sharing gasps of appreciation were Pimpisa Jirathiwat, Pava Nakasai, Raswadee Kuansongtum and Pitcha Thanalongkorn.

The collection’s triple concept – Playful, Smart and Artistic – was reflected in the charming and harmonious combination of art and design. These are definitely clothes that women can wear every day in the confident knowledge that they look modern, hip and fashion-savvy.

The usual trends and rules are ignored in a refreshing use of minimalist patterns. As the name of the collection indicates, the chief inspiration comes straight from Shakespeare’s riveting tale of love and magic afoot in the world. Ideas are also suggested by the animated music video “Pools” by indie rock band Glass Animals, which teeters between the dark and light sides of romance.

Soontaree acknowledged that her intent was to share Shakespeare’s eternal love story through elaborate prints and draw on Glass Animals’ complex retelling of the tale to remind everyone that summer is made for hot passion and warm affection.

The patterns are created in watercolours and collage, lush images of the season when nature teems with bright life and hot and bold colours.

Her bikinis and beach wraps are revealing, the better to glimpse sun-kissed skin, and yet are as elegant as they are comfortable in materials imported from America and Japan.

The fabrics are light and often sheer. Knit forms a stylish crop-top with fine cutting, ideal for mixing and matching. The invitation is to think beyond the boundaries of fashion trends to create your own independent and playful style.

Hats and shoes remain must-have items with that same virtue of mingling |well with other |pieces and styles. Iconic art is recreated in a meticulous |printing process.

AB by Angelys Balek New York is available on the second floor of CentralWorld and in the Qurator Zone on the second floor of the EmQuartier.