COCO

• July 13th, 2011
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Monday, August 1st, 2011)
  

  COCO AND PLACE VENDÔME

  “Chanel and Place Vendôme are very linked. She lived in the Ritz, now there is a Jewelry shop, it’s very Paris, there are many photos of her on the place Vendôme. The big site of the Ritz is also still the Ritz, a part of the place Vendôme.” Karl Lagerfeld

  From the 1920s onwards, Mademoiselle Chanel refused to “settle down” and stayed at the Ritz Hotel occasionally before she decided in 1937 to move in and rent a suite on the third floor.

  Place Vendôme was one of her sources of inspiration. The octagonal cap of her first perfume, Chanel N°5 recalls its geometry and proportions. Later on, the Première watch equally reminds of this aesthetic.

  Today, directly facing her suite at the Ritz is the Chanel Fine Jewelry boutique which opened at number 18 in 1997.

  Photo: 1937 – Gabrielle Chanel at the balcony of her suite at the Ritz Hotel, Paris © Photo Roger Schall / Collection Schall

   
• November 17th, 2010
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010)
  

  CHANEL BY JEAN LEYMARIE
  A COLLECTOR’S BOOK REVISITED

  First published in 1987, this book was impossible to find in stores until now.
  Only the most determined could still track down this collector.

  It is once again available in French published by “Éditions de la Martinière” and in English by “Abrams” in the United States and “Thames & Hudson” in England.

  In this book, art historian Jean Leymarie recounts the life of Coco Chanel and her work through the world of art. The text is accompanied by photos of Coco Chanel amidst the creations of Cocteau, Modigliani, Matisse, Renoir, Iribe, Doisneau, Marie Laurencin…
  Toward the end of the 1910s, thanks to muse and benefactor Misia Sert, wife of painter José-Mari Sert, Gabrielle Chanel was introduced into the most avant-garde group of artists of the time. Jean Leymarie highlights the friendships that forged the life and style of Coco Chanel, from Picasso to Dali. “I always felt a solid sense of friendship toward Picasso. I believe that he felt the same way.” (quote from Coco Chanel, p.70)

  Photo: the book “CHANEL” by Jean Leymarie photographed in Coco Chanel’s apartment

   
• June 29th, 2010
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Monday, June 6th, 2011)
  

  COCO CHANEL’S APARTMENT
  THE COROMANDEL SCREENS

  “I’ve loved Chinese screens since I was eighteen years old…I nearly fainted with joy when, entering a Chinese shop, I saw a Coromandel for the first time…Screens were the first thing I bought…” (Quoted in “Chanel Solitaire” by Claude Delay – Gallimard – 1983 p.12)

  Mademoiselle Chanel is believed to have owned 32 folding screens. Her apartment at 31 rue Cambon had eight of them, which she freely used in ways other than for what they were intended — she dressed her walls with them, like wallpaper, or used them to give structure to her private space.
  It is also said that she used them to hide the doors. That way, she was sure to keep her guests when receiving them for dinner.

  The Coromandel screens embody her taste for Chinese art, which she discovered together with Boy Capel. The Coromandel lacquer technique emerged at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), in the Hunan province, in the heart of China. The major themes include mythology, scenes of imperial life and love of nature, which bestow a spiritual dimension upon the art form.

   
• May 5th, 2010
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  in COCO. (Last updated : Monday, June 6th, 2011)
  

  COCO CHANEL’S APARTMENT
  THE CAMELLIA

  The camellia, a flower of stark simplicity and pure white, could not fail to charm Mademoiselle Chanel. It formed part of her private world: here scattered on Coromandel screens, it also appears in chandeliers or in bouquets with rock-crystal.
  Prior to being the flower associated with demimondaines or dandies, the camellia symbolized purity and longevity in Asia. Gabrielle Chanel made it a symbol of her designs, featuring it here and there in every item of a woman’s wardrobe.

   
• March 7th, 2010
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Thursday, March 11th, 2010)
  

  COCO CHANEL’S APARTMENT
  THE DUKE’S BOXES

  At the end of the 1920’s, Gabrielle Chanel had a love affair with the Duke of Westminster, the richest man in England. Sitting on the table of her apartment are three vermeil boxes given to Gabrielle Chanel by the Duke.

  The metal which adorns them is less precious than the one concealed inside: a gold interior. It was thanks to the Duke of Westminster that Coco Chanel discovered this characteristic of luxury which she made her own: something which remains hidden, which exists only for oneself. This notion of luxury found an immediate echo in the fashion world because, according to Coco Chanel: ‘Elegance comes from being as beautiful inside as outside’.

   
• December 22nd, 2009
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Friday, December 31st, 2010)
  

  COCO CHANEL’S APARTMENT
  THE 18TH CENTURY ARMCHAIR

  It is in this antique armchair, made of sculpted walnut and covered with white satin, that Gabrielle Chanel was photographed by Horst in 1937. The photographer later confided that Mademoiselle Chanel was very pensive during this sitting, and attributed this mood to a love affair. But after the shoot, nobody knew what happened to the armchair. Karl Lagerfeld found it in an auction in Monte-Carlo in the 1980s, recognising it as precisely the one from Horst’s photo. This is how the armchair returned to Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment.

  Made by Chevigny, the great 18th century furniture maker, this particular armchair displays unusual proportions that are explained by its origin as a “half-bathtub”, whose wooden panelling (intended as a water basin) was cut and transformed into an armchair covered with white satin. The bronze legs indicate the original presence of wheels, which would have allowed the bathtub to be moved from one room to another.

   
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  • Coco Chanel's Apartment
• October 6th, 2009
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010)
  

  COCO CHANEL’S APARTMENT
  WHEAT, A SYMBOL OF PROSPERITY

  Wheat is a recurrent theme in Mademoiselle Chanel’s apartment. She made it her lucky charm, like a subtle metaphor for creativity that never ends…

  In each room of the apartment, wheat makes an appearance: as a brass bouquet, in gilded wood on the sitting-room fireplace, as gilded sheaves for a table leg, or even as a simple blade painted for Mademoiselle by Dali.

  Karl Lagerfeld in turn “sprinkled” ears of wheat throughout his Spring-Summer 2010 collection: showers of golden wheat ears were embroidered or cropped up on chain belts, bracelets, headbands, necklaces and shirt fronts.

   
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  • Coco Chanel's Apartment
  • Spring-Summer 2010 Ready-to-Wear
• July 30th, 2009
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010)
  

  COCO CHANEL’S APARTMENT
  THE FROG AND ITS PENDANT

  A gift to Gabrielle Chanel from Jacques Chazot, a famous dancer from the Opéra-Comique and well-known member of glittering Paris society, this frog with its open mouth, a symbol of good luck in Asia, was initially part of the decorations of a fountain before the designer decided to plate it in gold. She even let her guests believe that it was made from solid gold. One day, as Parisian designer Hubert de Givenchy was having tea with Gabrielle Chanel in her apartment at 31 rue Cambon, he found a pendant that had fallen from the chandelier in the living room, and placed it delicately in the frog’s mouth. Mademoiselle Chanel decided to keep the frog with its crystal pendant.

   
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  • Coco Chanel's Apartment
• May 11th, 2009
  By administrator
  in COCO. (Last updated : Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010)
  

  Coco chanel’s apartment
  UNDER THE SIGN OF LEO

  Born a Leo on the 19th of August, 1883, Gabrielle Chanel surrounded herself with models of lions in wood, silver, bronze or alabaster for her apartment at 31 rue Cambon. The lion became a timeless biographical seal on numerous of her creations. “August 19th is my birthday. I was born under the sign of Leo. I am a Leo and, like a lion, I use my claws to prevent people from doing me harm, but, believe me, I suffer more from scratching than from being scratched.” The lion is also the symbol of the city of Venice, most notably the lion at Saint Mark’s Square, the protective emblem of Doge’s Palace. Coco Chanel fell in love with the city when she went for the first time, a voyage made in attempt to ease the pain of the sudden death of her lover, Boy Capel, in December 1919. Karl Lagerfeld has decided to go back to Venice to present the Cruise 2009/10 collection.

   
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  • Coco Chanel's Apartment