Listen to the audio version of the article
LONDON – Calling Gabrielle Chanel legendary is not hyperbole: the founder of the eponymous fashion house changed the trajectory of women’s fashion forever. She designed beautiful but comfortable, perfect but simple clothes, she combined luxury with practicality, she fused masculine and feminine to create a unique style that was her own: that of an active, self-confident and independent woman. Born poor and then welcomed with open arms by the French beau monde and the British aristocracy, Chanel lived firsthand the dream that she then passed on to her countless clients.
The first exhibition ever dedicated to Gabrielle Chanel opens on Saturday 16 September at London’s Victoria & Albert, deliberately not called Coco, her nickname, to underline her return to her origins. In fact, we start from her beginnings as a milliner – who opened the first hat boutique in 1910 in Paris – to arrive at her swan song, her last collection in 1971, shortly before her death. Ten thematic rooms and over 200 dresses tell the unique story of a pioneer and visionary of fashion, who is still considered a symbol of timeless elegance today. The V&A has drawn on its incredible archives and collaborated with the Palais Galliera Fashion Museum in Paris and Patrimoine de Chanel to assemble an unprecedented survey of Chanel designs, from the very first creation – a silk jersey marino shirt from 1916 – to the evening dresses of the twenties and thirties. Then the invention of the “little black dress”, no longer a symbol of mourning but of elegance, interpreted and re-proposed in a myriad of versions, and the launch of the suit – jacket combined with skirt or trousers – created for a working woman, ” the most beautiful uniform in the world”, as Vogue defined it in 1964. On display there are creations for Hollywood – dresses worn by Lauren Bacall, Marlene Dietrich and Elizabeth Taylor – and for Balanchine’s ballets.
As the decades pass, fashions and trends change, but the characteristics of his art remain unchanged: precision, innovation, attention to detail, minimalism, fluid fabrics and simple colors. Not just fashion: the exhibition has a section dedicated to accessories created by Chanel: the most famous, the “invisible” accessory, perfume N°5, created in 1921, the best-selling in the world ever. Then the 2.55 quilted bag (so named after the month and year of her invention), which is still on sale, and the jewels, deliberately showy and rigorously fake, including pearls.
The grand finale is a reconstruction of the mirrored staircase of the Chanel atelier, with evening dresses from the latest collections. Austere luxury, an apparent simplicity that hides the complexity of the technique and cut. The exhibition does not hide the most controversial aspects of the life of Gabrielle Chanel, who the Nazis considered a trusted spy and who after the war chose exile in Switzerland for many years, only to return triumphantly to dominate Parisian fashion until her death in 1971 at 87 years old. But the message is clear: it is the clothes that speak about her, and it is her clothes that are her precious legacy to the world.
Gabrielle Chanel – Fashion Manifesto. From 16 September 2023 to 25 February 2024. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. vam.ac.uk/chanel