Film and Fashion: Coco Chanel

Apparently I've missed this film, 'cause I had no idea this movie was released in Belgium back in January... Has anyone seen the film yet? And is it any good? I've heard that it's somewhat slow? But from what I can tell from the trailer, the mise-en-scène is beautiful, as well as the costumes the main character is wearing... 

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

I told you many times about Lagerfeld's short films for Chanel, but did you know that Gabrielle Chanel worked for Hollywood? Sam Goldwyn 
offered her one million dollars to design for MGM in 1931. But after a 
year she left the industry since she supposedly didn't get along with 
Gloria Swanson, whom she dressed in Tonight or Never. Bruzzi 
states that "Chanel was inflexible when asked to tailor her style to 
the needs of the film or to divest her costumes of the understated 
chic which had become her couture trademark" (1997, p. 3).


Btw. Bruzzi's Undressing Cinema-book is a must read for anyone who 
is interested in film and fashion! It helped me out for my thesis a lot.
Check out Google Books...

Chanel Le Vernis - part II

Remember the Chanel nail polish I pre-ordered before / monday? Saturday I was visiting an Haute Couture-exposition, looking at some amazing Gabrielle Chanel-designs, when I got a call from the store; my order had arrived.

Today I picked up the two nail polishes and both pastel colors look stunning. The sales assistant did tell me that the Pop-up collection arrived in selected stores on Saturday and the few products of the collection sold out immediately, only moments after they put it on the display stand. So my advice; hurry up!

Later I will upload the pictures I took at the exhibit; Vintage Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Worth, Paul Poiret, Vionnet and more recent haute couture pieces by Jean Paul Gaultier and Elie Saab... I went mad. 

Silent Chanel

Mr. Lagerfeld does it again: a silent film by Chanel!

Also, Chanel has a brand new site matching the Paris-Shanghai line

and short film, I told you about earlier. On the page you can find

behind the scenes video fragments starring the designer himself.

Vogue

While studying fashion through the 19th century, I came across this old Vogue-cover from 1919. Even though the illustration is a 'close up', you can immediately tell that the girl was an early adopter of the garçonne look, which was introduced by Coco Chanel during the Roaring Twenties.

The illustration is by Georges Lepape, who also did the artwork for Paul Poiret, featuring his "robe à la minute" (1912-1914). As you can tell, this is a simple 'tube'-dress with short sleeves and very narrow around the ankles and in which no corset was needed. Both Poiret as Chanel are considered as the fashion designers who liberated women from tight undergarments.