Chanel's Allure Permeates The Met

By Stan Parchin
Tuesday May 3, 2005

The fashions of twentieth-century design diva Gabrielle "CoCo" Chanel (1883-1971) are on display in Chanel at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 5 to August 7, 2005. Examples of her couture from The Met, Chanel's collection and other institutions worldwide are supplemented by some from her House's inheritor, Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938). Fashion mavens will be relieved to know that the show is mounted in The Met's first-floor special exhibition galleries rather than in the customary, claustrophobic confines of the ground-level Costume Institute beneath the Egyptian antiquities.

Chanel rose in the upper echelons of European society from her humble beginnings in an orphanage by associating with aristocrats and figures of political stature. Her clever use of self-promotion while a milliner helped to solidify her position as a fashion authority with whom to be reckoned. The show commences thematically with Chanel's innovative designs of the 1920s. She boldly adapted jersey, usually reserved for men's undergarments, and refined it for women's clothing by the use of hand-sewn details. Also on view are more feminine dresses of the 1930s and gowns that exuded her sense of modernism through their exposed construction. Signature accessories of Chanel's own design, such as the quilted bag and crystal Maltese cross, are also on display.

Olivier Saillard's white architectonic display modules, arranged in a grid and using artist Marie Maillard's video wallpaper projections, present the works of the House of Chanel in a way new to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The fashions exhibited and the show's competing, minimalist high-tech design leave the viewer wondering what's actually on display, the fashions or the show's design. As is usual with Costume Institute special exhibitions (regardless of their locale within The Met), the labels are far too low to the ground for any adult to read without straining.

About the catalogue:

Koda, Harold, Andrew Bolton, et al. Chanel (exh. cat.).
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.

This highly affordable catalogue to accompany the special exhibition describes the place of CoCo Chanel within the context of twentieth-century fashion and documents all of the pieces in the show.

For further reading:

Charles-Roux, Edmonde. Chanel and Her World.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1975.

Originally published shortly after her death, the book is still a worthwhile biography of Chanel.

"Chanel" is on view from May 5 to August 7, 2005 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82 Street, New York, NY 10028 (Telephone: 212-535-7710; Website: www.metmuseum.org). The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM and Friday and Saturday from 9:30 AM to 9:00 PM. SUGGESTED admission is $15.00 for adults. Paid parking is available in The Museum Garage.

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From your Guide: Stan Parchin, Contributing Editor for Museum/Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history. His interests include: the art and culture of Old and New Kingdom Egypt; the Italian and Northern Renaissances; Church history; and witchcraft, heresy and social dissent in late-medieval and early Modern Europe.

Image credit: Gabrielle Chanel
Evening Dress 1925
Black silk chiffon
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Gytha M. Rupp, 1994
Image by Karl Lagerfeld for the exhibition catalogue Chanel
Cat. page 73

(From whence came the expression, "Little black dress.")

See also the Chanel page at About Women's History