Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto (Touring)

Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto is the first exhibition in Australia to focus exclusively on the significant contribution to twentieth-century fashion culture by the renowned French couturière Gabrielle Chanel (1883–1971).

Curated by the Palais Galliera, Paris and presented in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the exhibition features over 100 outfits as well as jewellery, accessories, cosmetics and perfumes. Key designs are drawn from the rich holdings of the Palais Galliera and the Patrimoine de CHANEL, the heritage collections of the fashion house in Paris. These are complemented by works from public museums, including the NGV, and further private collections, creating this rare opportunity to see a comprehensive display of Gabrielle Chanel’s works from the full span of her long career.

Chanel devoted her life to creating, perfecting, and promoting a new type of feminine elegance, grounded in the reality of women’s lives. The exhibition highlights how Chanel rewrote fashion conventions to transform women’s wardrobes with her innovative ideas, pioneering approach to fabric and construction, and utmost consideration of the female form.

This was her fashion manifesto: a design style based on principles of comfort, streamlined simplicity and ease of movement that became a template for modern living.

Visually sumptuous, the exhibition charts the evolution of the famous ‘Chanel style’ – a look best embodied by the designer herself. It explores the characteristics of her work, her codes, and her legacy. Spanning nine sections, organised chronologically and then thematically, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto illustrates the spirit of freedom and defiance that characterised Chanel’s design language throughout the twentieth century.

An exhibition organised by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, Paris Musées.

Touring

01.10.2020 – 14.03.2021 The Palais Galliera, the City of Paris Fashion Museum