Commemorating the life and legacy of Gabrielle Coco Chanel, the French fashion house has unveiled “The Sense of Places” exhibition. Visitors will be immersed in Coco Chanel’s world as the exhibition features a set of visual displays shedding light on the French fashion designer’s sources of inspiration throughout her life along with modernized versions of her designs interpreted throughout the years by Karl Lagerfeld.
Located in the Zaha Hadid-designed Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Dongdaemun, Seoul, WWD reports that the exhibition has been curated by French art critic and artistic director, Jean-Louis Froment.
Coco Chanel fans can explore through different sections throughout spacious design complex, with five sections encompassing the life and times of the diva from childhood to her breakthrough as an internationally-feted designer of haute couture.
A wide range of Coco Chanel’s relics, ranging from an immaculately well-kept robe, to tapestries of Chanel’s original patterns, as well as religious artifacts are put up on display inside the dimly lit interiors. Tracing back the milestones of Gabrielle’s lifestyle, the exhibition opens up the whole world of the founder of Chanel and leads to a fashionable journey down the most stylish memory lane. This exhibition reveals the true spirit of Chanel with over 500 pieces that also include photographs, books, objects, manuscripts along with fashion, jewelry, watch and perfume creations.
Culture Chanel, “The Sense of Places” approaches Chanel’s creative language through the locations that greatly inspired Gabrielle Chanel. Each of the exhibition’s ten sequences acts as a particular landmark in Mademoiselle Chanel’s life story, and the exhibition seeks to highlight the strong influence these places she lived in and loved had in forming her stylistic language.
Described in the curator’s words, “Gabrielle Chanel created her own form of art. Chanel created its own language. It is so unique because she was influenced by so many artists such as [Igor] Stravinsky, Picasso… She had an ability to look at different historical subjects with her own point of view. This is so unique in the world of couture. And in this sense, without having been an ‘artist’, she was able to hone her skills and savoir-faire through her understanding of art through others.”
He also added that DDP is the perfect venue for the exhibition and commented, “The building’s design by Zaha Hadid demonstrates femininity and strength, and is also quite controversially discussed. I like this idea a lot in relation to Chanel and the artistic endeavors Gabrielle Chanel achieved over a century ago. Between them, these women are both so interesting,” he said.
The Culture Chanel Exhibition in Seoul will run until October 5, 2014
