Gabrielle Chanel never married, so Bruno Pavlovsky, the impish but unflaggingly correct president of fashion at the company that bears her name, refers to her without fail as “Mademoiselle Chanel.” His observation of etiquette seems more and more incongruous the further you get into the salons of Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto, a major exhibition that has just opened at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
Outside France, “mademoiselle” might suggest girlishness. Chanel’s ambition, pragmatism, notorious steeliness and, most of all, vision were anything but. There are almost 200 looks on show — some of them more than a century old. But to say that you could wear much of it tomorrow and look very much today is stating the obvious.
The V&A show is the latest edition of a retrospective which was first shown at the Palais Galliera in October 2020 in Paris, before travelling to Melbourne, Tokyo and now London. Each time, the exhibition has been reconceptualised (London adds 60 new looks), and each time Pavlovsky says that he is “always rediscovering, always surprised.”
Read Tim Blanks’ full column in our #linkinbio.
✍️ @timblanks
📷 Courtesy Chanel
#LuxuryFashion
Outside France, “mademoiselle” might suggest girlishness. Chanel’s ambition, pragmatism, notorious steeliness and, most of all, vision were anything but. There are almost 200 looks on show — some of them more than a century old. But to say that you could wear much of it tomorrow and look very much today is stating the obvious.
The V&A show is the latest edition of a retrospective which was first shown at the Palais Galliera in October 2020 in Paris, before travelling to Melbourne, Tokyo and now London. Each time, the exhibition has been reconceptualised (London adds 60 new looks), and each time Pavlovsky says that he is “always rediscovering, always surprised.”
Read Tim Blanks’ full column in our #linkinbio.
✍️ @timblanks
📷 Courtesy Chanel
#LuxuryFashion
