Style icon: Inside Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto at National Gallery of Victoria
Tweed suits, LBDs, quilted bags, and slingback heels.
As Chanel unveiled its Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto retrospective exhibition in Australia, the French luxury house staged its latest Métiers d’art show in Paris, where wide-legged denim, oversized bows, sleeved gloves and intricate embellishments ruled the runway.
Chanel’s creative director Virginie Viard unveiled her 2021/2022 collection at the brand’s new artisan headquarters 19M, which spans a seven-level complex in Aubervilliers.
Models sported dramatic black winged eyeliner, with their hair in beachy waves and intricate braids, topped off in bow-tiful style with ribbons in their hair.
A model on the runway at Chanel’s Metiers d’art show in Paris. Picture: AFP
Bows featured on outfits — and in the models’ hair. Picture: Getty Images
Models sported intricate accessories and Chanel beauty winged eyeliner. Picture: AFP
Chanel recently unveiled its Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Picture: Getty Images
“For years, we’d had to deal with having specialised houses all over Paris,” Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion, told the New York Times of the 19M complex.
“We wanted to create the right conditions for them to come together in order to recruit, train and transmit their savoir-faire, so that these métiers could live on.”
And that it does — especially on the runway.
A graffiti-esque bomber, Chanel-style. Picture: AFP
Purple reign. Picture: AFP
Take a bow. Picture: AFP
It’s all in the details. Picture: AFP
The collection featured statement gold cuffs and ornate buttons. Picture: AFP
Jean-ius. Picture: Getty Images
Denim a la Chanel. Picture: AFP
A modern take on Chanel’s tweed suit. Picture: AFP
GABRIELLE CHANEL. FASHION MANIFESTO
The creative legacy of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel is being celebrated as part of the fashion retrospective, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, in Melbourne.
The exhibition has been staged for the first time outside of Paris, for a five month residency at National Gallery of Victoria, with pieces sourced from the Palais Galliera and the Patrimoine de Chanel.
Miren Arzalluz, Palais Galliera’s director and co-curator of the Chanel exhibition, described the process of relocating the collection from Paris to Melbourne as “very (emotionally) moving”.
“It really shows the evolution of her work from the beginning of her career to the end, because she died working in 1971,” Arzalluz said, speaking via Zoom from Paris.
Phoebe Tonkin at the opening of Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto in Melbourne. Picture: Chanel
Dresses designed by Gabrielle Chanel are on display at National Gallery of Victoria in Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto. Picture: Chanel
“When we started this project, we knew a lot about her famous (Chanel) suit and all her coats, but we didn’t know … her work in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s, which is extremely glamorous and very radical for that time,” Arzalluz said.
“She had her very own way of using feathers and sequins, and maybe the things that people don’t associate with Chanel, that are extremely glamorous and telling about her way of approaching fashion.”
Lily Sullivan at NGV for Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto. Picture: Chanel
The scent of Chanel. Bottles of Chanel №5 are on show at Garbielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto. Picture: Chanel
Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto is the first retrospective devoted to Chanel to be on show in Australia, after it premiered at the Palais Galliera in 2020.
The retrospective features more than 250 pieces dating from the 1910s to 1971, and sheds new light on Chanel’s enduring influence — both the brand, and its namesake.
“When we talk of sports chic or comfortable clothes that look chic and elegant, we always talk about [Chanel],” Arzalluz said, per Vogue.
“This freedom of movement and comfort — that didn’t exist in women’s fashion until Chanel arrived.”
Phoebe Tonkin, a friend of the house, at the opening of Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto at National Gallery of Victoria. Picture: Chanel
Lily Sullivan, wearing Chanel, at NGV. Picture: Chanel
Among the highlights of Fashion Manifesto include the evolution of Chanel’s quilted 2.55 bag in lambskin, jersey or silk satin, and two-tone slingback heels, as well as Chanel’s little black dresses (made of lace, velvet and silk), and her signature tweed suits.
As Vogue Paris declared in 1959: “Every suit holds the secrets of Chanel luxury. And this luxury is in the details”.
Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto is on now until April 25 at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Originally published as Style icon: Inside Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto at National Gallery of Victoria
