Chanel (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications) - Hardcover

Koda, Harold; Saillard, Olivier

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300107137 ISBN 13: 9780300107135

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2005

Synopsis

This splendid book examines the legacy of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, one of the twentieth century's great icons of style. While Chanel mythologized her glamorous life through relentless self-invention, the bare facts of her biography are no less worthy than her legend: born of a poor family in the provinces and raised in a convent, she was an entertainer and the mistress of men of impeccable social standing, and she began her career not as a dressmaker but as a milliner. Chanel's enduring influence is necessarily based on the long shadow cast over fashion by her maison couture. Chanel examines the history of the House of Chanel both thematically and chronologically, introducing ideas and elements of biography as they were expressed in her collections. Period examples are juxtaposed with the work of Karl Lagerfeld, who, beginning in 1983, just over 10 years after Chanel's death, reinvented and revolutionized the House's identity. It is in Lagerfeld's masterful and often irreverent interpretations of Chanel's work, as well as his mixing of influences from high and low culture, that the historic importance of Chanel and the resonance of her image as the independent, elegant modern woman are both defined and reasserted for the contemporary world. This book accompanies an exhibition scheduled to open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 5-August 7, 2005.

About this title

About the Author:

Harold Koda is Curator in Charge and Andrew Bolton is Associate Curator of the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0300107137
• ISBN 13: 9780300107135
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176