A new exhibition in London explores the immortal legacy of Coco Chanel.. How?

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - When asked about the secret of the appeal of the exhibition titled “Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Demonstration,” Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, said: “I am certainly a big fan of the little black dress.” Organized in a fashion boutique style, this exhibition is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom dedicated to the famous fashion designer who built one of the most successful fashion brands in the world.

At the end of 2021, Chanel employed about 28,500 people around the world. The exhibition brings together pieces from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Palais Galliera Fashion Museum in Paris, and the Patrimoine de Chanel (the fashion house's heritage collections), and includes about 200 pieces of clothing in total.

The exhibition begins with a collared blouse dating back to 1916. Made from luxurious silk jersey, this piece is one of the oldest surviving Chanel garments.

It then moves through low-waisted day dresses from the 1920s to 'evening pajamas' from the 1960s (tailored trouser sets in brocade and lamé) via a two-level room of the brand's emblematic skirt suits; Before ending with pieces from Chanel's final collection of 1971. "A lot of the early pieces are more than 100 years old, and it's amazing to see how relevant they are today," exhibition curator Oriole Collin told Ofoq News in an interview.

Colleen highlights the blouse from 1916 for its ease of wear and elegance, saying it was "the piece that launched Chanel's fashion career. It's very simple and of course made from their famous jersey fabric." Chanel's emphasis on factors such as comfort and freedom of movement was a pioneering trend in the fashion world, and quickly became popular.

In 1926, American Vogue described her short black crepe de chine day dress as “the dress the whole world will wear.” Justine Picardie, author of the book "Coco Chanel: The Myth and the Life," stated in a phone interview with Ofoq News that the dress became "synonymous with the modern woman of the Jazz Age, who enjoyed independence, strength, and flexibility."

"One of the unique aspects of Chanel as a designer is that her clothes were so radical in their innovations at the time of their launch, yet they feel timeless," she added. But the reason behind the great demand for the Chanel biography exhibition is that its subject goes beyond the world of fashion.

For Hunt, "Chanel's shift in its seductive masculine looks and engagement with gender identities in the early twentieth century seems very modern." He added: "She was a remarkable woman, and her life story is a big part of the story of the exhibition."

Humble Beginnings Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was born in 1883 in a nursing home in Saumur, western France. Her mother died when she was eleven years old, so her father placed her in an orphanage in a monastery in the village of Aubazine.

Picardy, who stayed at the Aubazine Monastery while conducting research for her book, explained: She never saw her father again after he abandoned her. Despite this, she worked throughout her life to transform her sadness into a strong creative drive.”

Hence, the influence of the nuns' black and white look can be seen in her many monochrome collections. Later, the short black dress appears from a period of “bereavement and grief, after the death of Arthur Capel (an English polo player), the first great love of her life, who died at the end of 1919,” according to Picardy.

“Chanel is one of those designers who can access not only her own feelings, but ours as well,” said Picardi, adding that “her experiences of love and loss, and trying to find strength and self-expression are universal – and I think that's what makes her designs, as well as her fragrances, so expressive, so powerful, so seductive.” But before Chanel became a fashion designer, she was a milliner – and she also proved to be a savvy businesswoman and entrepreneur.

She opened her first store on Rue Cambon in Paris in 1910, expanded to the affluent resorts of Deauville and Biarritz, and used the success of these ventures to launch her own fashion line. In 1921, she launched her first perfume, the famous No. 5, which became the best-selling perfume in the world.

In the 1950s, when Marilyn Monroe was asked: “What do you wear to bed?” she replied: “Chanel No. 5.” The Legendary Woman Throughout the exhibition, the visitor will see details of her personal life mentioned on panels of biographical texts as well as photographs: Chanel with her lovers (including Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster) as well as with her friend Winston Churchill.

When the latter stayed with Chanel and the Duke at the Sutherland Estate in Scotland, he wrote of Chanel: “She fishes from morning until night, and in two months she has killed 50 salmon.” One of the much-discussed phases of Chanel's life is her wartime relationship with German embassy official Hans Gunther von Dincklage.

In July 1941, the Nazi authorities registered Chanel as a reliable source. But newly discovered documents show that in 1943, Chanel joined the French Resistance as an accidental agent — research that has been incorporated into both the exhibition and the new edition of Picardy's autobiography.

“There are a lot of myths about Chanel,” noted Picardi, whose research on Chanel's life has spanned 25 years. "I've never seen her as a supporter of Nazism, so when this document comes out showing that she was in fact a member of the French Resistance, it adds, for me, the final piece to the puzzle."

Picardi concluded by saying: “Often people only look at the surface of fashion, but there cannot be a beautiful surface without understanding the hidden depths, and this is never truer than with a designer like Chanel, as her life story is highlighted through her designs.”