The V&A’s Chanel Show Is a Stylish Exercise in Myth-Making

The V&A’s new exhibition on Chanel begins with the designer’s handprint, portrait and biography. Although there are no garments in this first room, the innovations listed in her biography – Chanel No. 5, the Chanel suit, the ‘little black dress’ – are so instantly recognisable they need no picturing.

Based on the 2020–21 show at the Palais Galliera in Paris, Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto focuses on the work of the house’s founder, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. It features some of the earliest surviving Chanel pieces – the Marinière blouse from 1916, a hat from 1917 – and some of the designer’s last, from a collection completed just before her death in 1971. At times it feels like a vast walk-in wardrobe for the museum audience to fantasise: visitors pointed out to each other the dresses, accessories and jewellery they would wear; a huddle of retirement-age Americans animatedly discuss dress-making methods.

From the off – in that early blouse, with its then-innovative use of silk jersey for a soft, supple shape with distinctive sailor collar, gently dropped shoulders and loose drapes tied with a belt at the waist – Chanel’s design signatures were clear. Supporting text explains how her style both responded to and helped define a changing era for women. Alternating rooms of black and ivory underscore the codes of Chanel’s ‘manifesto’: ease of wear, unfussy detailing and elements borrowed from menswear and sportswear.

The exhibition is divided into ten themes, with titles such as ‘Towards A New Elegance’ and ‘A Timeless Allure’, most of which feature fairly conventional displays of dressing. There are, however, a few interruptions. The brightly lit glass cabinetry in the Chanel No. 5 room details the original approach for the brand’s signature perfume, blending ingredients for a more abstract and less floral scent. A double-height display of over 50 post-war skirt-suits occupies another space, and a recreation of the mirrored staircase leading up to Chanel’s private residence over the flagship store on Rue Cambon briefly transports visitors to Paris.

Other exhibits highlight Chanel’s costume contracts with film studios and her investment in fabric development, including lesser-known stories about Chanel’s work with British textile suppliers responsible for the brand’s signature tweeds. Her connections to Britain, however, were not just professional; the curators also detail her romantic relationship with polo player and businessman Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel and her time spent fishing with Winston Churchill - and how these experiences in turn influenced her designs.

More space could also have been given to discussion of Chanel’s design methods. Portrayals of the couturier at work – showing her manner of cutting and pinning on the model, not working to a sketch – are scant, though a 1930 description by French writer Colette, which appears in a caption, gives a visceral sense of the scene: ‘Chanel works with her ten fingers, with her nails, with the side of her hand, with the palms, with pins and scissors, right on the garment, which is a white vapour of long folds, splashed with crushed crystals.’

Hints are made at the force of personality to which the exhibition partly attributes Chanel’s rise. Wall text tells the story of how after an inauspicious start in an orphanage, the facts of which she often chose to conceal or alter, charismatic ‘Coco’ gained influence and wealth in an era when such achievements were virtually impossible for a working-class woman. As a series of portraits by Man Ray, Horst P. Horst and Willy Rizzo show, Chanel was her own marketing tool: one 1937 advert for Chanel No.5 simply depicts the couturier in her Ritz lodgings.

Yet for someone whose tendency to aphorism and an abrupt put-down has spawned gift-books of her quotations, anecdotal colour is selectively used, and tends towards the flattering. Also gently handled are Chanel’s wartime activities, her relationship with a German officer and her appearance in Nazi documents as an apparent trusted source. Newly declassified documents, also on display, somewhat complicate this history, suggesting her association with the French Resistance.

With Chanel’s name and fashion revolutions firmly in place, the exhibition could have comfortably reminded visitors of the couturier’s achievements with half as many examples. If the aim was to document how Chanel transformed unwavering self-belief into lasting influence, a fuller picture of her craft – the making and manipulation beyond the deceptively simple garments, and her stylish wearing of them – could be more confidently presented.

'Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto' is on view the Victoria and Albert Museum, London until 25 February 2024

_{Main image: 'Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto', exhibition view. Courtesy: Victoria and Albert Museum, London}