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The NGV announces a huge Coco Chanel exhibition

An exhibition of one of the world’s most influential fashion designers will land in Melbourne this summer. Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto is the first exhibition in Australia to solely focus on the fashion contributions of 20th-century French designer Gabrielle (aka Coco) Chanel.

The exhibition is coming to the NGV in partnership with Paris’s leading fashion museum, the Palais Galliera, which launched this significant exhibition in autumn 2020. Melbourne will be the first city outside of France to host the exhibit, with the gallery presenting more than 100 Chanel garments from the Palais Galliera, Patrimoine de Chanel (Chanel’s archives), as well as from additional public and private collections. The NGV will also be drawing from its own holdings, bringing out some never-before-seen acquisitions such as a white lace ‘Evening dress’ (spring-summer 1933) and a shirred red silk velvet and marabou-lined ‘Evening cape’ (circa 1924-26).

Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto presents Chanel’s work across a series of thematic and chronological sections, exploring her enduring influence on fashion, as well as in perfume, jewellery and accessory design. Importantly for Melbourne audiences, the exhibition features some of Chanel’s earliest use of black to connote modernity, as well as her lace gowns, tweed suits (made famous by the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Grace of Monaco) and beaded garments. Chanel was pivotal in redefining fashion for women in the 20th century, creating garments that offered a sense of luxury alongside comfort, even championing the longstanding fashion staple that is the little black dress.

It gets better though. The official opening of Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto on December 4 also coincides with the return of one of Melbourne’s hottest events – the NGV Gala. It is the first time the black-tie event has run since 2019 when the gallery hosted Salt-N-Pepa alongside its Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kaws exhibitions.

Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto runs from December 5 to April 25, with tickets for both the exhibition and gala on sale now.

A Huge Chanel Exhibition Featuring More Than 100 Garments Is Taking Over the NGV This Summer

If you’ve ever worn a little black dress, then you owe Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel a big thank you. Depending on your choice of suit, bag and perfume, you might owe her some gratitude there as well. The French designer’s influence upon 20th-century fashion extends far and wide — and, even though she passed away in 1971, her imprint can be felt in the 21st century as well. So, when the NGV International sends some love her way at its next blockbuster exhibition, it’ll have plenty to cover.

Displaying at the St Kilda Road gallery from Sunday, December 5, 2021–Monday, April 25, 2022, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto will arrive fresh from its current stint at Paris' Palais Galliera. Its stop in Melbourne is its first international jaunt, in fact. On show will be pieces from the French venue, as well as from the Patrimoine de Chanel, the fashion house’s heritage department.

More than 100 garments will grace the NGV’s walls and halls, with the exhibition charting her career. You’ll also be able to see what Chanel achieved with perfume, jewellery and accessory design, too.

Some pieces will date back more than a century, given that the fashion icon opened her first boutique in Deauville in 1912, before making the leap to her own Parisian couture house in 1918. Expect to check out everything from black threads — obviously — to lace gowns, wool jersey and tailored tweed suits, and an array of beaded garments. As you peer at Chanel’s designs, you’ll see how womenswear developed, and both how and why she’s left a mark that still lingers today.

The NGV is also adding its own Chanel pieces to the exhibition, such as a white lace Evening dress that dates back to 1933, and a shirred red silk velvet and marabou-lined evening cape from around 1924–26.

They’ll form part of a showcase that’s split into themed sections, with different parts devoted to her early work, the way her design language evolved in the 1920s and 1930s, the iconic scent that is Chanel No 5, and how the brand’s pieces have favoured a look best described as “austere luxury”. Also getting their own themed strands: suits, accessories and jewellery.

To launch Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, which will be ticketed — and will be the first-ever exhibition in Australia that’ll solely focus on Chanel’s contributions to fashion and culture — the NGV is bringing back its black-tie NGV Gala, which’ll take place on Saturday, December 4.

Announcing the exhibition, NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM said that “there is no bigger name in 20th-century fashion design than Gabrielle Chanel. Her originality, timelessness and elegance forged a radically modern vision of fashion and a singular style. Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto will be expansive, visually sumptuous and will reveal the achievements and enduring legacy of the extraordinary French fashion designer.”

If you decide to wear a little black dress while you’re checking out all things Chanel this summer, you’ll likely have plenty of company.

Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto will display at the NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne from Sunday, December 5, 2021–Monday, April 25, 2022. For more information, or to buy tickets, head to the gallery’s website.

Top image: Anne Sainte-Marie in a Chanel suit, photograph by Henry Clarke, published in Vogue US, 1955, retouched by ARCP. ParisMusées. © Henry Clarke, ParisMusées /PalaisGalliera/ADAGP. Copyright Agency, 2021.

Published on July 14, 2021 by Sarah Ward