Chanel at the V&A

I recently had the privilege of being a plus one to an event where we were able to view the Gabrielle Chanel exhibit at the V&A after hours. Growing up I always had an interest in fashion so when my mum asked me to go with her, I was over the moon. I’d visited a few exhibitions like this in the past such as the Tiffany & Co exhibit at the Saatchi gallery last year or the Dior exhibit also at the V&A back in 2019- and both were fascinating. So I was expecting this one about Chanel to be just as thrilling. And I was right.

The exhibition began with a timeline of Gabrielle Chanel’s life, iconic but at times extremely controversial, leading into rooms full of her first designs- the silk shirt in the second image was one of the ‘earliest surviving Chanel garments’ made in 1916. Chanel pioneered the use of fabrics for what would previously be considered an unconventional use. For instance, that shirt is made of fine-gauge silk jersey which was usually a textile for stockings and underwear but Chanel turned it into a blouse designed to be worn as part of a suit, inspired by collared fisherman’s pullovers.

Next was the perfume and accessory room which detailed the beginnings of Chanel’s famous scents and beauty products. It was fascinating to see that the branding on her items pretty much hadn’t changed in decades, e.g. the font on her packaging. To explain, the image on the bottom left is the retelling of a letter from Queen Elizabeth II thanking Frederick Browning for gifting her a Chanel perfume which was ‘the very thing I particularly wanted’. Although, not only was the Queen a fan but also Marilyn Monroe, who supposedly wore Chanel No. 5 to bed. In addition my mum and I learnt about the origin of the name for Chanel’s signature scent, No. 5. Chanel had told her master perfumer, Ernest Beaux, that since she was presenting her new collection on 05/05, she will then sample the fifth perfume presented to her to bring good luck.

We then came upon arguably the most awe-inspiring room. The walls lined with one of Chanel’s most famous designs: the tweed suit. It was just incredible to be able to see dozens of one of the most famous pieces in fashion history which massively furthered women’s fashion as it was a statement of ‘modern femininity’.

We continued sauntering through, admiring each piece and learning so much about Chanel’s history. Original sketches, fine jewellery and beautiful shoes were exhibited but my personal favourite being: the famous Little Black Dress. It was so cool to see how timeless Chanel’s pieces were as the LBD featured in the centre image could very easily be a modern piece despite being decades old. The same went for Chanel’s accessories such as her shoes and bags, the designs of her most coveted and iconic pieces, e.g. the Boy Bags or sling-backs, haven’t changed much since their first release, simply because they are timeless.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my time at the Chanel exhibition and have the chance to visit it yourself as while I hope I’ve done a decent job at retelling what I learnt, it obviously doesn’t compare to seeing the pieces and reading about them in real life. Thank you for reading! <3