Is This Chanel's Idea of an April Fool's Joke?

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Yes, the pictures above are of actual items in the Chanel windows on East 57th Street and yes, we totally need a paper sack with which to stop our panicked hyperventilation. Is Chanel trying to put one over on us by showcasing their oddest collection pieces, to prove that people will fawn over anything with the interlocked C's?

If so, we aren't buying it literally or figuratively. Would Karl Lagerfeld muse Lady Amanda Harlech be caught dead sporting a nest of what look to be black whispering willow branches atop her head? No. Daphne Guinness on the other hand...

The shoes are especially flabbergasting; plastic and feathers together? Is Karl calling for a return to the days of Clueless? And we won't even go there with the calfskin shopping bag, whose smallest size goes for $2,625. Do you think Karl is having a little fun despite the recession and his belief that it's like "a big spring housecleaning?" Would you buy and wear any of these items, recession or not? Do enlighten us.