For the next 2012-13 Métiers d'Art Paris-Edimbourg ad campaign, Karl Lagerfeld has chosen as his heroine the one who describes herself as "a sort of common-or-garden legendary Scottish rebel", Tilda Swinton.
"Tilda perfectly embodies the Paris-Edimbourg collection. She is of course Scottish, but more than that she is a modern woman, a timeless icon of elegance", declared Karl Lagerfeld.

Discover the campaign in May 2013.

Photo: Olivier Saillant
Château d'Ecouen, December 2012

Chanel and Charles Finch hosted the fifth annual Pre-Oscar dinner in Los Angeles on February 25th.

As a symbol of Chanel's style and elegance, the jacket takes its place as one of the House’s icons. Endlessly desirable and reinvented with each season, its modernity and apparent simplicity make it an indispensable item in any woman’s wardrobe.

Conceived by Mademoiselle Chanel in the 1950s and inspired by Austrian jackets for men, this tailored jacket, when combined with a skirt reaching just below the knee line, became Chanel’s classic suit. In direct contrast to the tight, restricting styles of the 1950s, this suit offers complete freedom of movement.
This suit jacket in tweed - one of Mademoiselle Chanel’s favourite fabrics - is straight and structured, buttoned up edge-to-edge and conceived to fit like a second skin, without shoulder pads and stiffening which would only bring it rigidity.

To achieve suppleness while maintaining shape, the fabric is put together on the straight grain without any darts on the bust line. The same for the back with just a simple seam down the middle. A vertical panel on the sides joins the jacket’s front to the back. The sleeves are cut on the straight grain and are attached at the top of the shoulder. They are slightly angled at the elbow, so as to take on the line of the arm and move easily with it, providing perfect comfort.
Mademoiselle Chanel was greatly attached to this freedom of movement and took her customers’ measurements with their arms crossed on the shoulders.
Braiding outlines the jacket’s shape, the edge of the pockets and sleeves, strengthening its graphic quality.

The pockets are positioned, so that the woman may slide her hands inside them, something seen as a relatively masculine gesture in Mademoiselle Chanel’s day.
Jewelled buttons stamped with lion heads (Mademoiselle Chanel’s star sign was leo), ears of wheat and double 'C' emblems button the jacket up. To this model, Mademoiselle Chanel would add Baroque-style costume jewellery, a 2.55 bag, two-toned shoes, and maybe a camellia from among the accessories that marked her style.

Today, this jacket has become one of Chanel’s icons, and with each season it receives a new lease on life in the hands of Karl Lagerfeld, but even if its proportions and materials change, the principles of its construction remain identical.

www.culture-chanel.com

Guangzhou Opera House
No 1, Zhujiang Xi Lu, Zhujiang New Town, Tianhe District,
510623 Guangzhou, China
Opening hours: 10am-7pm Monday to Sunday
Free entrance
January 16 - March 3, 2013

© Photo Marie Liszkay

March issue

Organised in partnership with the Guangdong Museum of Art, this new exhibition has once again been entrusted to Jean-Louis Froment, the curator of the two previous Culture Chanel exhibitions. This event will take place at the Guangzhou Opera House, designed by the architect Zaha Hadid, from January 16th to March 3rd, 2013.

Based on the longstanding links between Chanel and the arts, this exhibition centres on Pablo Picasso’s stage backdrop, designed and created by him for the 1924 ballet, Le Train Bleu (The Blue Train). This major work, conserved at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, has been exceptionally lent by the museum for this occasion. Le Train Bleu, a ballet produced by Serge Diaghilev, owes its name to the train that once linked Paris with the Côte d’Azur. He commissioned Darius Milhaud as composer, Jean Cocteau as librettist, Henri Laurens as set designer, Pablo Picasso for the programme and backdrop, and Mademoiselle Chanel as costume designer.

Gabrielle Chanel’s creative and intimate world is traced out like filigree when seen through the different artists who contributed to Le Train Bleu’s creation. She maintained a lifelong dialogue with them and their friendship gave impetus to her extraordinary creative output. This freedom of thought, combined with the desire to liberate the body through movement expressed at the turn of the 20th century (whether in sport or dance), are two fundamental aspects of the Chanel style.
Starting from a perceptive reading and a deconstruction of the different elements in the backdrop, the exhibition develops around five themes derived from the standpoints: Breathe, Move, Love, Dream and Invent.

These themes, that underpin the creative universe and values of Chanel, are evoked through 400 works, including photographs, drawings, paintings, manuscripts, books, films and creations from fashion (from Mademoiselle Chanel to Karl Lagerfeld), as well as from watchmaking, fine jewellery and fragrances.
Among the pieces exhibited visitors will discover for the first time around thirty previously unseen drawings by Pablo Picasso from a private collection, along with drawings by Amedeo Modigliani that are portraits of the major protagonists involved in Le Train Bleu’s creation.
Conceived to be an “exhibition in 5 acts with 1 painting”, these five themes ultimately lead visitors towards the exhibition’s masterpiece - the backdrop by Picasso.

www.culture-chanel.com

Photo Jean Moral © Brigitte Moral

Anne Hathaway wearing Chanel Haute Couture

Making the Spring-Summer 2013 Haute Couture collection

Soundtrack:
Charles Münch, Orchestre de Paris "Daphnis & Chloe Suite No. 2: I. Lever du jour" (Maurice Ravel)

The newest chapter in “Culture Chanel” is based on an exceptional loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Picasso's spectacular stage backdrop entitled Le Train Bleu (1924). Following two exhibitions of the same name (one held at the National Museum of China in Beijing, and the other at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai), Chanel is partnering with the Guangdong Museum of Art to host an exhibition at the Guangzhou Opera House, a prestigious building designed by the architect Zaha Hadid. "Designed to retell various chapters of the same story, “Culture Chanel” seeks to reveal Gabrielle Chanel's unique journey with Chanel,” explained Jean-Louis Froment, who has been commissioned to curate these exhibitions.

For this chapter, Sergei Diaghilev's ballet serves as the backdrop for the exhibition, a ballet named after Le Train Bleu (The Blue Train), and a luxury overnight train that first began operation in December 1922 and carried passengers from Paris to the French Riviera. It symbolizes the yearning for leisure and travel that was prevalent at this time. Diaghilev considered Le Train Bleu more of an operetta to be danced than a ballet. It was presented for the first time in Paris in June 1924, featuring music by Darius Milhaud, a libretto penned by Jean Cocteau, scenery designed by Henri Laurens and a stage backdrop and program created by Pablo Picasso. Gabrielle Chanel, who was in charge of costume design, created sporty jersey garments for this avant-garde ballet that echoed her vision of fashion at the time. The protagonists of this project would remain close, faithful collaborators with Gabrielle Chanel for the rest of her life. "These are the artists who led Gabrielle Chanel to consider her work as art, which helped her transition from the concept of fashion to that of style,” emphasizes Jean-Louis Froment. This thought process inspired Gabrielle Chanel to create a language that was both modern and timeless, which is illustrated brilliantly through the display cases filled with both her designs and designs by Karl Lagerfeld.

The exhibition decrypts Chanel style by focusing on five major themes: Breathe, Move, Love, Dream and Invent, which culminate with the monumental stage backdrop by Picasso. The world of Chanel comes to life with 400 works on display in a diaphanous and elegant setting. These include artwork (including approximately 30 drawings by Picasso), photographs, books from Gabrielle Chanel's personal library, films, couture pieces by both Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld, jewelry, watches and perfumes.

Françoise-Claire Prodhon

www.culture-chanel.com

Guangzhou Opera House
No 1, Zhujiang Xi Lu, Zhujiang New Town, Tianhe District,
510623 Guangzhou, China
Opening hours: 10am-7pm Monday to Sunday
Free entrance
January 16 - March 3, 2013

Painting © Succession Picasso 2013, Victoria and Albert Museum, London