Coco Chanel in Melbourne - a gorgeous exhibition

The Palais Galliera is a permanent fashion museum in Paris, established in 1977 in a C19th building commissioned by Duchesse de Galliera. This museum displays French fashion designs from the C18th on. See garm­ents owned by Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVII and the Empress Joséphine, and important designer pieces by Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent.

With the opening of her first boutique in Deauville in 1912, then her couture house on 31 Rue Cambon in Paris in 1918, Coco Chanel (1883–1971) began to reform women’s ward-robes by creating a new code of dress that foc­us­ed on comfort, function and elegance, and resp­onded to women’s growing need for social freedoms.

Chanel at work, wearing a suit

published in Vogue France, 1954

When the Belle Époque peaked, Chanel destroyed women’s rib-breaking corsets, bobbed their hair, put them in bathing suits and sent them outside for sunshine! She introduced the little black dress; trousers for women; costume jewellery; and her trademark comfortable suit. Early in the Roaring 20s, Chanel made the first ever couture Per­fume #5 in the little square-cut flagon that, inspired by Picasso and Cubism, became a symbol of the Art Deco style. 

Chanel suits, NGV Melbourne
Broadsheet 2021

L]Dress and jacket c1926–7 silk canvas.
Patrimoine de Chanel, Paris.
R]dress 1960 embroidered cotton, lamé, organdie.
Palais Galliera, Paris. Qantas

Equally captivating: the gowns associated with Chanel’s so-called rom­ant­ic era of the 1930s. Dedicated sections of the exhibition showcase Chanel’s use of fl­oral motifs, seen as printed textiles and her skil­fully manipulated lace evening wear. Chanel devoted her career to creating, perfecting and promoting a new type of real women’s elegance, based on the reality of women’s liv­es. Her key beliefs: a design style based on com­fort, stream­lined simpl­icity and ease of movement that became her model for modern living.

After opening in Palais Galliera in 2020, the exhibition Gabrielle Ch­anel. Fashion Manifesto moved to Australia from Dec 2021-Apr 2022, the first exhibition in Australia to exclusively focus on this renown­ed C20th French couturière. The exhibition explores Coco Chan­el’s design cod­es through a dis­play of 100+ garments from acr­oss her car­eer. High­lights in­clude early ex­amples of her use of black to conn­ote mod­ern­ity and chic; dazz­ling beaded garments; bold costume jew­ell­ery; access­or­ies, cosmetics and perfumes. This helps us app­reciate Chan­el’s impact on C20th womenswear and her redefinition of modernity. 

Note the first composite and abstract perfume, Chanel #5, created in 1921; cosmetics; and the highly decorative costume jewellery that com­bined precious and semi-precious materials. The exhibition also exam­ines the design codes Chanel intro­duced in the early 1950s eg quilted 2.55 bags with shoulder chains.

Chanel handbag and chain

Early 1950s, Guardian

The ex­hibition explores Ch­anel’s design codes so we can examine her impact on women’s wear over the C20th, and consider the legacy of her designs in contemporary culture. A radical depart­ure from the elaborate fashions of the Belle Epoque and Edwardian eras in France and UK!!

Key designs in the Melbourne exhibition were drawn from the Palais Galliera collection and from Pat­rimoine de Chanel, the heritage coll­ect­ions of the fashion house in Paris. Other works came from public museums eg the NGV, and from private collect­ions. Miren Arzalluz, Dir­ector of Palais Galliera and exhibition curator, discussed Chanel’s subtle elegance that shuns extravag­an­c­es, a timeless style for the new woman. That was her fashion manifesto, a legacy that has never gone out of style. Arzalluz repeated that Chan­el’s success was based on 1] functionality, 2] comfort, 3] chic elegance of her des­ig­ns and 4] her ability to interpret the desires of women.

So the Melbourne exhibition spanned nine sections organised chron­ol­og­ically and thematic­al­ly, and illustrated the spirit of freedom and def­iance that typified her design language. For example Chanel’s designs used a restrained luxury that reduced decorat­ion and allowed women to move easily. She pioneered the use of wool jer­­sey and tail­ored tweed suits, drawing inspiration from menswear and sportswear.

A further exhibition highlight is a display of iconic Chanel suits. Debuted originally in the 1910s and reintroduced after the re-opening of her haute couture house in 1954, the 2 or 3-piece suit in lightweight woven tweed still remains a feature of the coll­ec­tions. Popularised by the likes of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Grace de Monaco, Marlene Dietrich and Lauren Bacall, the Chanel suit quickly became the embodiment of sophistication and functionalism, defined by its tailored lines, and ease of movement, and clever use of gilt buttons and braiding.

NGV Melbourne

Victorian Minister for Creative Industries, Danny Pearson, reiterated that as Melbourne is the fashion centre of Australia, it is app­rop­riate that the exhibition should be there. Unique exhibitions att­ract vis­it­ors from right across the nation, boosting local tourism and encour­ag­ing fashion lovers to flock to Melb­ourne. Bruno Pavlovsky, President of Chanel Fashion said: ‘A rebel at heart, Chanel transposed her personal needs, audacity and freedom into creat­ions that reflected her personality and that she initially made for herself. Her demands for comfort, functionality and simplicity subseq­uently be­came those of all women”.

See A Fashion Manifesto by Miren Arzalluz (ed). Essays by fashion historians illuminate an era, event or theme. Rare archival documents and portraits of Gabrielle Chanel herself, complete the book.