The famous mirrored staircase inside Coco Chanel’s apartment at 31 Rue Cambon, Paris.
Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
Gabrielle Chanel, photographed by Henry Clarke, published in Vogue France, 1954.
Paris Musées. © Henry Clarke, Paris Musées / Palais Galliera / ADAGP.
Copyright Agency, 2021.
Chanel flagship boutique at 31 Rue Cambon, Paris.
Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
Gabrielle Chanel, c. 1930s, photograph by André Kertész.
Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine.
Photo © Ministère de la Culture – Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Dist.
RMN-Grand Palais / André Kertész.
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Considered to be one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century, Gabrielle , affectionately known as Coco, introduced a language of modernity into fashion that still resonates today. With the opening of her first fashion boutique in Deauville in 1912, then her couture house at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris in 1918, Coco began to reform women’s wardrobes by creating a new code of dress that privileged comfort, function and elegance, and responded to the growing desire for greater social freedoms among women.
As a fashion loving city, it is fitting that Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto makes its first international outing in after its premiere in . The exhibition, imagined by the Palais Galliera, the Fashion Museum of the City of Paris kicked off at last week, on the 4th of December 2021.
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The study at 31 Rue Cambon apartment.
Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
The study. Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
The corner of the study. Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
The entrance. Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
The dining room. Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
The dining room. Photo: Francois Halard, courtesy of Chanel.
Anne Sainte-Marie in a Chanel suit.
Photograph by Henry Clarke, published in Vogue US, 1955, retouched by ARCP.
Paris Musées. © Henry Clarke, Paris Musées / Palais Galliera / ADAGP.
Copyright Agency, 2021.
Unfolding across several chronological and thematic sections, the show explores Chanel’s design codes through a display of more than 100 garments that trace a truly remarkable career. Highlights include early examples of her use of black to connote modernity and chic; delicate lace gowns; wool jersey and tailored tweed suits; dazzling beaded garments; and bold costume jewellery.
Alongside the garments is an insight into Coco’s interiors, displaying how her fashion sense was intrinsically linked with the style of her homes—namely her apartment at 31 Rue Cambon that sits atop the flagship boutique, the epicentre of the Chanel world and the symbol of the house’s style and its timeless elegance.
Chanel combined the beige of roughcast with glossy black window blinds in the same way as the two-tone leather of a pair of pumps; she turned a quilted suede cushion into her 2.55 bag; she used the same warm, neutral and natural shades as the basis for her interiors and for the tweed fabrics of her suits. The glitter of the chandeliers and the vermeil boxes lit up her interiors in the same way that her jewellery enlivened her clothes, according to the mood of the moment.
Gabrielle Chanel (designer)
CHANEL N°5 perfume bottle 1921
glass, cotton cord, wax seal, printed paper
Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris
Photo © Julien T. Hamon.
CHANEL (designer) / Gripoix (maker)
Brooch 1937
gilt metal, glass paste (pâte de verre)
Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris
Photo © Julien T. Hamon.
Gabrielle Chanel (designer)
CHANEL N°5 perfume for handbag c. 1930
glass, silver-plated metal, jersey, cardboard, paper
Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris
Photo © Julien T. Hamon.
CHANEL (designer) / Massaro (maker)Prototype for two-tone shoe c. 1961
kidskin, silk satin Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris
Photo © Julien T. Hamon.
Gabrielle Chanel (designer)‘2.55’ bag c. 1955–71
quilted lambskin, gilt metal, swivel clasp
Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris
Photo © Julien T. Hamon.
Coco’ Chanel at the Ritz Hotel (drawings by Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau), 1937.
Photograph by François Kollar. Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine.
© Jean Cocteau / ADAGP. Copyright Agency, 2021.
Photo © Ministère de la Culture – Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Dist.
RMN-Grand Palais / François Kollar.
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Of her interiors, of which her iconic apartment in rue Cambon still stands, she said “All my art has consisted of cutting away what others have added.” Her concept for a garment or an interior was always based on a structure of the strictest simplicity, governed by notions of freedom and comfort—vital luxuries in Chanel’s eyes. This was the basis for her vision of an updated form of classicism.
With this rational and functional base in position, decorative elements could then be added. Accessories, furniture and objects were arranged sparingly, rejecting any kind of hierarchy between things that were costly and things that cost next to nothing: Chanel combined precious stones with costume jewellery, placed vermeil boxes alongside dried ears of corn, retouched the gilding on her lacquer screens herself, arranged bronze sculptures on the floor and treated objects worthy of a cabinet of wonders as if they were holiday souvenirs.
Gabrielle Chanel (designer)
Ensemble with dress and jacket c. 1926–27
silk, silk taffeta
Patrimoine de CHANEL, Paris
Photo © Julien T. Hamon.
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