May 11, 2021
It feels like it’s about time. Paris’ famed Palais Galliera fashion museum is about to
reopen, allowing visitors back into its hit exhibition on Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel.
Located in the tony 16th arrondissement of Paris, the Palais Galliera will reopen on May 19, allowing the museum to extend its show Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto until July 18.
The initial closure date of the exhibition had been March 14. However, as the Galliera has been in and out of lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic, a prolongation was deemed necessary. The show has already attracted 40,000 visitors to the Galliera, a medium-sized mansion built in the late 19th century in Italian Renaissance style that is one of the great fashion temples of Paris.
Remarkably, in an era when the best attended exhibitions in the world’s greatest museums are devoted to fashion and fashion designers, there has never been an exposition solely devoted to Coco’s work.
The exhibition covers Coco’s career and features over 350 pieces culled from the Palais Galliera; Chanel’s archives and international museums like the Victoria & Albert Museum, the De Young Museum of San Francisco, the Museo de la Moda in Santiago and the MoMu in Antwerp.
This first Parisian introspection highlighting Gabrielle Chanel’s fashion revolution extends over two floors and is divided into 10 chapters, where multiple photographs underline how Coco embodied her own refined marque and life works. From her early career, with its elegant yet impertinent style; from her black mini dresses to her legendary jersey marinière of 1916 and her sporty period during Les Années Folles, the exhibition follows a chronological presentation. Later works concentrate on a more detailed investigation of her dress codes, fantasies and luxurious jewelry collections.
In effect, the Palais Galliera offers us a unique invitation into the timeless and hyper fashionable universe of Gabrielle Chanel – fully justifying its title, Fashion Manifesto.