It would not be inaccurate to frame 2023 as a bumper year for the house of Chanel. In May, the late Karl Lagerfeld, its previous creative incumbent, was honoured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York, its flagship exhibition dedicated to his career — which included a 36 year stint at the Parisian titan.
In September, the V&A unveiled Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto, an exhaustive retrospective charting the creative life of its enigmatic founder. In record breaking style, it was already mostly sold out before it even opened. The crux of the exhibition is the world renowned tropes Chanel created, and endlessly reinterpreted: the tweed jacket, the strings of pearls, the little black dress, the two-tone slingback pumps and the quilted handbag.
