The Palais Galliera has reopened in Paris as the city’s first permanent fashion museum with a major retrospective on the life and work of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.
The Palais Galliera or Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, Paris’ first permanent fashion museum, reopens its doors after renovations, where a retrospective devoted to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s fashion will be held, and will present several types of objects, including fashion magazines from Palais Galliera’s collections.
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The first ever retrospective of the designer’s work in Paris offers more than 350 pieces from the Palais Galliera Collections and Patrimoine de CHANEL, from international museums, like the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the De Young Museum in San Francisco, the Museo de la Moda in Santiago de Chile, the MoMu in Antwerp, and of course from private collections. Covering an area of nearly 1500 square meters, the exhibition is an ode to Gabrielle Chanel’s Style. Always the first to wear what she designed, her choices reflected her own taste.
In the details, this Fashion Manifesto will be divided into two parts, each will take you on a trip into the designer’s iconic life and designs:
The first part is chronological. It recounts her early beginnings with a few emblematic pieces. You’ll trace the development of Chanel’s chic style: from the little black dresses and sporty models of the Roaring Twenties to the sophisticated dresses of the 1930s.
The first part on the ground floor of the museum focuses on her early beginnings in the 1910s when at that time, Paul Poiret dominated the world of women’s fashion. Gabrielle Chanel opened a boutique in Deauville in 1912 and Biarritz in 1915 and got inspired by the spirit of freedom that characterized the aristocracy of these seaside French towns. She revolutionized the Haute Couture with emblematic pieces like the 1916 ivory marinière, the sailor blouse, in silk jersey. Chanel conquered the US market with her elegant hats- originals and replicas. In the 1920s, actress Ina Claire contributed to launch Gabrielle Chanel’s career in America. She was a modern woman with a combination of youthfulness and sophistication. In Grounds for Divorces, a play produced by Henry Miller in 1924, all Ina’s Chanel outfits were described as the most elegant attire of the season. In 1964, Gabrielle Chanel was omnipresent in the US on every level of the American fashion industry from the young to the older women.
One room is dedicated entirely to N°5 created in 1921 by master perfumer Ernest Beaux who selected more than eighty components for it. Gabrielle Chanel wanted a mysterious and abstract perfume which did not exist in nature with no specific scent. She wanted an artificial perfume created like a dress. Chanel N°5 will be immediately recognizable by its scent amplified by an accidental overdose of aldehydes. Coco wanted to create a perfume for women who assume their feminity and freedom. Like the scent, its container and presentation were totally innovative. Already in 1924, she launched a make up line with lipstick, some perfumed with N°5. In 1932, Gabrielle Chanel presented her Chanel Summer Collection which included three products related to tan: powder, tan and oil liquid. A revolution for a modern woman. In November and December 1937, photographer François Kollar shot her in her apartment at the Ritz for an advertisement of N°5 published in Harpers Bazaar. In 1960, Marilyn Monroe told Georges Belmont, a journalist for Marie Claire that the only thing she wore in bed was Chanel N°5, which made the perfume, already the world’s best-selling perfume, a legend forever.
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The second is a themed part where visitors will decipher her dress codes including the braided tweed suit, two-tone pumps, the 2.55 quilted bag and, of course, the costume and the fine jewelry that were intrinsic to the Chanel look.
In 1954, Gabrielle Chanel was in her seventies and in an era when the New Look (the corseted style) prevailed, she took position against this trend. The extreme simplicity of her tailleur is the perfect example of what made her so unique and so successful. The Chanel Tailleur was a manifesto in itself of her vision of the modern woman. A perfect balance of the silhouette and anatomy of women combined to elegance and simplicity. The precision and refinement of the finish are essential and became a signature. The Chanel jacket is more than a reference in women’s fashion today.
The Fashion Manifesto covers an area of nearly 1500 m2, including the newly opened basement galleries, with more than 350 pieces from the Palais Galliera collections and Patrimoine de CHANEL.
The exhibition is running until March 14th at the Palais Galliera in Paris with the support of CHANEL.