Chanel unveils teaser for short film celebrating the birth of its jacket

Chanel unveiled a sneak peek Monday of a splashy music video featuring US pop star Pharrell Williams and British supermodel Cara Delevingne that retraces the birth of the fashion house's iconic jacket.

A sample of the clip has Williams in the role of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph waltzing in a dark and dreamy ballroom with wife Sisi, played by Delevingne, who's gone brunette for the occasion.

The full eight-minute video, directed by designer Karl Lagerfeld, is to premiere at Chanel's December 2 fashion show in Austria. In the clip, titled "Reincarnation", the musician behind the global hit "Happy" sings his new song "CC The World" with the model, according to Chanel.

It's a video drawn from the moment that inspired fashion house founder Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel to create her iconic jacket. In that episode Chanel was staying at a hotel in the suburbs of Salzburg in 1954 when the outfit of a lift operator there gave her the idea for the piece of fashion history.

"It was the moment to show the origins of the Chanel jacket ... the jacket of a lift operator reincarnated as a timeless piece of women's clothing," said Lagerfeld.

After Mumbai, Edinburgh and Dallas, the fashion house has chosen the 18th century rococo Leopoldskron Palace in Salzburg for this year's "Metiers d'art" event, which showcases the work of skilled artisans. (AFP)