#gabrielle chanel
Chanel’s symbolic colours
↳ Black
Black because it accentuates the essential and recalls the monastic rigor of the uniforms of the Aubazine Orphanage. Because for Gabrielle Chanel it “reveals a woman’s radiance”.
Thanks to Chanel, black evolved from the garments of servants and those in mourning to become, since 1926, the color of elegance, epitomized by the little black dress.
“I imposed black; it reigns still because black trumps all” Madmoiselle declared.
Black because it creates depth among other colours, because it stands out against a white label, shines in the make-up cases of luxurious lacquer, lines eyelids and enhances lashes. (x)
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I came across these beautiful pictures and i could not help but share them with you. Gabrielle Chanel kept dressing and preparing her models for a fashion show till her very last days. She dressed her generation and all the generations that came and will have to come after her death. Her remarkable legacy and style will never fade. Coco forever
Gabrielle Chanel, Spring–Summer Dress, 1960,
Embroidered Cotton Tulle, Lamé, Organdie,
Palais Galliera, Paris,
Gift of Chanel Photo
© Julien T. Hamon
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Evening Cape
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel
House of Chanel
1927
This evening cape is constructed of two 45-inch-wide lengths of silk crepe sewn together vertically and then ingeniously gathered and knotted to form a cape. The color of the silk crepe changes from black to cream, with metallic brocade covering the transition area. The influence of Japanese art is evident in the construction and drape of the cape and the use of the chrysanthemum motif. Chanel combined Art Deco aesthetics along with East Asian forms and techniques to create a critically modernistic look.
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Coat
House of Chanel
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel
1927
The convergence of Art Deco line, the modernist impulse to facilitate pure form, and Japonisme’s potential to offer a vocabulary of untailored wrapping shapes was more than fortuitous. Chanel uses a French ombré textile with pattern sources from the Japanese kimono but brings to it the ethos of chaste minimalism. As Western fashion designers discovered from the East that untailored lengths of fabric could constitute modern dress, the cylinder and the textile plane became the new forms for apparel.
(Last two image’s source 1|2)
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Evening Coat
House of Chanel
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel
1927
Silk jacquard patterned with black and green graduation and gold chrysanthemum motif; matching tie-collar; two panels at back; wadded sleeve hems.
The chrysanthemum had often appeared as a fashionable motif sine the latter half of the nineteenth century. The textile with woven chrysanthemums in Japanese makie-like (gold lacquer) style represents the taste of Art Deco. The soft wadded cuffs are similar to the kimono’s fuki (wadded hem) in style.
Images and text taken from the book:
Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century, Kyoto Costume Institute, pgs 448-449.
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Rick Owens, Lesley “Twiggy” Lawson and Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel dresses from “Who You Wearing?” UEL’s graduated collection , summer 2015
Designed by Yasmeen Uddin
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Back of a 1930s Chanel dress in the Collection of the Museum of Fashion and Lace, Brussels
Picture by Musea van de stad Brussel
