The animal was ridden by Charlotte Casiraghi, a niece of Prince Albert of Monaco and a competitive show jumper, who is also a Chanel brand ambassador.

Wearing a Chanel jacket made of black tweed and decorated with sequins, Casiraghi rode out at the start of the show, cantering several times around a catwalk designed to resemble a horse training ring.

The rest of the models, this time on foot, came out onto the catwalk afterwards.

The show, at the Grand Palais Ephemere, an exhibition and performance space in Paris, was conceived by Virginie Viard, who became Chanel’s creative director in 2019 following the death of haute couture icon Karl Lagerfeld.

Paris Fashion Week returned with in-person shows last week after two years in which most houses had to go virtual due to the pandemic. French label Stéphane Rolland returned to the runway yesterday, while Christian Dior sparkled on the runway on Monday.