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Thoroughly Modern Gabrielle

A landmark exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and an upcoming Métiers d’Art show in Manchester are part of Chanel’s ‘British moment,’ president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky tells Tim Blanks.
Horst P. Horst’s 1937 portrait of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel is among the archival images in ‘Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto’ at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
Horst P. Horst’s 1937 portrait of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel is among the archival images in ‘Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto’ at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. (© Photo by Horst P. Horst /Condé Nast /Getty Images)
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Gabrielle Chanel never married, so Bruno Pavlovsky, the impish but unflaggingly correct president of fashion at the company that bears her name, refers to her without fail as “Mademoiselle Chanel.” His observation of etiquette seems more and more incongruous the further you get into the salons of Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto, a major exhibition that has just opened at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.

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Further Reading

Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel (1883-1971)

In the fourth instalment of BoF’s fashion history series, we meet the creator of the ‘little black dress,’ who took her cues from a country in mourning. Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, the designer doyenne who founded fashion’s most famous house, used her lovers’ money to establish herself and rewrote the rulebook with her mannish collections.

Chanel Takes Us to the River

Virginie Viard is the latest designer to join in fashion’s pre-Olympic celebration of Paris, both as city and state of mind, writes Tim Blanks.

About the author
Tim Blanks
Tim Blanks

Tim Blanks is Editor-at-Large at The Business of Fashion. He is based in London and covers designers, fashion weeks and fashion’s creative class.

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