The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2023 - Issue 34

biteexhibition Jada Brookes is mesmerised by the Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto exhibition at the V&A Museum, leaving her in awe of Chanel’s designs and accomplishments. Fashion Manifesto Exhibition GABR I ELLE CHANEL In the same veil as the V&A exhibitions on Cristóbal Balen- ciaga in 2017 and Christian Dior in 2019, senior fashion cu- rator Oriole Cullen, fashion curator Connie Karol Burks and project curator Stephanie Wood focused on the doyenne of 20th-century European couturier Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. Gabrielle Chanel : Fashion Manifesto travelled from the Palais Galliera in Paris to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London as a reimagined exhibition for the UK audience. It includes a section dedicated to Gabrielle’s work in the UK and her engagement with its heritage. “There’s lots of new in- formation here that hasn’t been published before,” Oriole said, adding the fashion designer had a factory in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The over 200 looks include 120 from outside the V&A’s collection, borrowed from the Chanel archives, pri- vate collections, Derby Museums in the UK and the Met and Indianapolis Museum of Art Galleries at Newfields in the US. From the moment you enter the exhibition, the spirit of Coco Chanel captivates you as though she is present in the images, medium and apparel. A plaque describes her life in fashion and her designs, which arose from her interests, experienc- es, and personal connections. “Although Chanel herself often concealed or reinvented elements of her biography, details of her long and complex life provide insight into the circum- stances that drove her creativity and determination for suc- cess.” Gabrielle’s life is chronicled fromher birth in 1883 to her death in 1971, including family, school, work, a love interest and the development of her fashion brand. The black and white photograph of the couturier outside her Deauville boutique in 1913, another of her sitting in a chair looking away and holding a cigarette taken by German-American photographer Horst P Horst in 1937 and her handprint captured two years later shows the extent of her beauty and character. Images courtesy of V&A Museum (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London