Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto Exhibition Opens Saturday, 16 September 2023 V&A South Kensington

Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto

Exhibition

Opens Saturday, 16 September 2023

V&A South Kensington

The first UK exhibition dedicated to the work of French couturière, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, charting the establishment of the House of CHANEL and the evolution of her iconic design style which continues to influence the way women dress today.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/gabrielle-chanel-fashion-manifesto

EXHIBITION

How Gabrielle became Coco Chanel

 

A new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London charts the designer’s transformation from an impoverished girl to a woman whose style went on to define not just her own era, but ours too

 

Monday June 05 2023, 12.13am BST, The Times

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gabrielle-chanel-fashion-manifesto-v-and-a-london-vitoria-and-albert-coco-chanel-exhibition-times-luxury-5qjxtq3rw

 

How did a French couturière, Gabrielle, become Coco Chanel? An upcoming show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London aims to answer this very question through an examination of the life and designs of one of the fashion industry’s most celebrated creatives.

 

Having transferred from the Palais Galliera in Paris, it is the UK’s first exhibition dedicated entirely to the work of Chanel. Curated by Oriole Cullen, the mastermind behind the V&A’s recent Christian Dior exhibition, it will feature more than 200 looks. Visitors will be able to walk among some of the earliest surviving Chanel creations, including costumes for a 1924 Ballets Russes production of Le Train Bleu, and outfits for the actresses Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich. The exhibition will also feature archive photography contextualising Chanel’s life, offering an insight into the process of self-creation that enabled her to become a name synonymous with Parisian chic, from Gabrielle to “Coco”.

 

Gabrielle Chanel’s early life was difficult. She was born into poverty in rural France in 1883 and, after the death of her mother, she and her siblings were abandoned at an orphanage by their father. As a young adult, she moved to Moulins where she worked as a seamstress and café singer, and it was during this period that she reclaimed the nickname Coco, originally given to her by her father. Among her favourite songs in her repertoire was Qui qu’a vu Coco, and close friends and family began addressing her as Coco. Shortly thereafter, she met the wealthy British polo player Arthur “Boy” Capel. In a period of limited social mobility, their relationship and Capel’s financial support gave Chanel the opportunity to pursue a career in fashion.

 

With his help, 27-year-old Chanel opened her first shop in 1910, a millinery on Paris’s Rue Cambon. While her early hats were wide-brimmed and featured ornate feathers, over time her designs began to reflect the practical elegance that would become her brand’s signature. One such model from 1917, which will be on display at the exhibition, is made of looped braid with a relaxed crown, making it easily collapsible.

 

Chanel’s hats quickly became popular with the celebrated actresses of the day and it was this success that enabled her to expand into clothing. The brand’s simple and comfortable designs struck a chord with the women of France, many of whom, exhausted by the pressures of the First World War, were eager to shed the pretence and discomfort of ostentatious dresses and corsets, and embrace simpler styles.

 

As the brand’s popularity grew, Chanel was able to begin designing accessories and jewellery and, with the help of Ernest Beaux, perfumes. The scent that launched the brand into the world of fragrances was Chanel No5, designed to “smell like a woman, and not like a rose”, with clean, simple packaging. It became the world’s bestselling perfume and the exhibition will feature a bottle of No5 from its original launch in 1921.

 

Chanel’s imagination catalysed the brand’s success in ways that can still be felt across the fashion landscape today. She made it chic and modern for women to wear black, rather than something to be reserved for widowhood. She incorporated flexible, knitted jersey material that made her clothes comfortable, and she engineered removable cuffs and collars for her collections to make them easier to clean. She even recontextualised the traditional wide-leg trousers used by French naval officers as a flattering garment for women — ultimately a precursor to the modern bell-bottom.

 

As you wander around the V&A, Cullen recommends looking out for the pops of colour as well. “Chanel is often associated with monochrome, as she favoured black, white and beige,” she says. “But she did also embrace colour, particularly in the latter part of her career, and there are some surprising inclusions in this part of the exhibition.”

 

The show’s ten themed sections will include an overview of Chanel’s partnerships and inspirations, and consider her 61-year career against the backdrop of a changing European landscape. Her contributions to the industry are lasting, Cullen says. “Over a century from the founding of the house, the name Chanel is undeniably present in contemporary culture.”

 

1.      Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto opens at the V&A in London on September 16. Early access tickets go on sale June 7; vam.ac.uk