Cuba Provides Backdrop For Chanel Show

French fashion house Chanel has put on its first Latin American catwalk show in Havana, in another sign of communist Cuba opening up to Western culture.

Actors Tilda Swinton, Geraldine Chaplin and Vin Diesel, supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Cuban music stars Gente de Zona and Omara Portuondo were among those joining the international jet setters on the red carpet to see Karl Lagerfeld's latest collection.

The German designer took in the rich colours and style of the Caribbean island, which has been gradually opening up to Western influences after decades of communist isolation.

In announcing the show, Chanel said that "the cultural richness and the opening up of Cuba to the world have turned it into a source of inspiration".

The balconies of old Havana were crowded with Cubans straining to catch a glimpse of the stars who had jetted in for the event.

There was a marked contrast between the opulence of the tightly guarded venue and the poverty of the ordinary shorts and T-shirt wearing Cubans who were looking in.

"What a sight," said one lady, who said she had never seen so much luxury and showbiz style in one place. "But I would have liked to be closer to the models."

Not everyone was impressed.

Local model Reinaldo Fonseca watched it from behind a police cordon with a group of friends similarly trying to make their careers in fashion and watched as rich foreigners with invitations arrived at the event in specially rented antique American sedans.

"It's a shame they don't let us pass," he said.

Local designer and artist Idania del Rio, 33, saw the Chanel show as quite old-fashioned.

"It was very interesting and maybe too nostalgic," she said. "A lot of Cuban cigars, colours and hats from another era. It represented a Cuba that doesn't interest me right now, because today's Cuba is another, more contemporary Cuba."

The Chanel show was the latest in a number of international cultural events announced since the opening up of diplomatic and commercial relations between the US and Cuba.

President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro, the brother of Fidel, Cuba's charismatic leader for almost 50 years, announced the deal during Mr Obama's December visit to the island.

In March veteran British band the Rolling Stones performed to thousands of fans in a country which once considered their music subversive.

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