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New Exhibition Devoted to Chanel’s Life and Work Opens in London

Members of staff looks at the different dresses and outfits displayed during the press photocall for the exhibition "Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto" at the V&A museum in London, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)
Members of staff looks at the different dresses and outfits displayed during the press photocall for the exhibition "Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto" at the V&A museum in London, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)
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New Exhibition Devoted to Chanel’s Life and Work Opens in London

Members of staff looks at the different dresses and outfits displayed during the press photocall for the exhibition "Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto" at the V&A museum in London, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)
Members of staff looks at the different dresses and outfits displayed during the press photocall for the exhibition "Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto" at the V&A museum in London, on September 12, 2023. (AFP)

The little black dress. The tweed dress suit. The perfume simply known as No. 5.

Those instantly-recognizable fashion classics, and many more lesser-known designs by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, are celebrated in a major new exhibition at London's V&A Museum dedicated to the life and work of the famed French designer.

Curators have brought together nearly 200 outfits seen together for the first time, charting Chanel's long career from the opening of her millinery boutique in Paris in 1910 to her final collection in 1971.

"Of course there are many elements that we are all familiar about Gabrielle Chanel and what she contributed to fashion,” said Connie Karol Burks, one of the curators. “But in this exhibition we expand out from that, and we really look in detail at how her approach to design influenced the way we all dress.”

The exhibition begins with one of the earliest surviving Chanel garments — a simple cream blouse from 1916 made from silk jersey, a humble fabric previously used for underwear and stockings.

Chanel was the first to show the fabric's appeal for high fashion, curators said, and the blouse sets the tone for the relaxed elegance and defiance of the more rigid fashions of the day that the designer is known for.

“What's really striking about it is just how modern it looks today,” more than a century later, Burks said.

Visitors at the exhibition are treated to galleries filled with Chanel's creations, including her famous little black dresses — an enduring hit that, in 1926, American Vogue magazine likened to the popular Ford car and predicted that “all the world will wear.”

The show's highlight is a mirrored room filled from floor to ceiling with a stunning display of Chanel's signature suits, from monochrome black and cream to more cheerful shades of rose, lilac and red.

There are also on display outfits created for Hollywood stars Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich, and sections devoted to Chanel's coveted perfumes and handbags. The finale is a showstopping recreation of the mirrored staircase in Chanel's couture salon in Paris, populated with mannequins donning a collection of the designer's opulent evening gowns.

Tristram Hunt, the V&A's director, said the museum hoped that the new display will build on and follow the successes of previous blockbuster fashion exhibitions featuring Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen.

“Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto” opens on Saturday, and runs until Feb. 25.

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Fashion

80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
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80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

L.L. Bean created it 80 years ago to haul heavy blocks of ice. Now it's a must-have summer fashion accessory, The Associated Press reported.

The simple, sturdy canvas bag called the Boat and Tote is having an extended moment 80 years after its introduction, thanks to a social media trend in which they're monogrammed with ironic or flashy phrases.

New Yorker Gracie Wiener helped get it started by ordering her humble bags from L.L. Bean monogrammed with “Psycho” and then “Prada,” the pricey Italian luxury brand, instead of just her name or initials, and posting about them on Instagram. Then others began showcasing their own unique bags on TikTok.

Soon, it wasn’t enough to have a bag monogrammed with “Schlepper,” “HOT MESS,” “slayyyy” or “cool mom.” Customers began testing the limits of the human censors in L.L. Bean’s monogram department, which bans profanity “or other objectionable words or phrases,” with more provocative wording like “Bite me,” “Dum Blonde” and “Ambitchous.”

Social media fueled the surge, just as it did for Stanley’s tumblers and Trader Joe’s $2.99 canvas bags, which were once selling on eBay for $200, said Beth Goldstein, an analyst at Circana, which tracks consumer spending and trends.
The tote’s revival came at a time when price-conscious consumers were forgoing expensive handbags, sales of which have weakened, and L.L. Bean’s bag fit the bill as a functional item that’s trendy precisely because it’s not trendy, she said. L.L. Bean's regular bags top out at about $55, though some fancier versions cost upward of $100.
“There’s a trend toward the utilitarian, the simple things and more accessible price points,” she said, and the customization added to the appeal: “Status items don’t have to be designer price points.”

L.L. Bean’s tote was first advertised in a catalog as Bean’s Ice Carrier in 1944 during World War II, when ice chests were common. Then they disappeared before being reintroduced in 1965 as the Boat and Tote.

These days, they’re still made in Maine and are still capable of hauling 500 pounds of ice, but they are far more likely to carry laptops, headphones, groceries, books, beach gear, travel essentials and other common items.

Those snarky, pop-oriented phrases transformed them into a sassy essential and helped them spread beyond Maine, Massachusetts’ Cape Cod and other New England enclaves to places like Los Angeles and New York City, where fashionistas like Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Jessica Parker are toting them — but not necessarily brandished with ironic phrases.

“It’s just one of those things that makes people smile and makes people laugh, and it’s unexpected,” said Wiener, who got it all started with her @ironicboatandtote Instagram page, which she started as a fun side hustle from her job as social media manager for Air Mail, a digital publication launched by former Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter.

The folks at L.L. Bean were both stunned and pleased by the continuing growth. For the past two years, the Boat and Tote has been L.L. Bean’s No. 1 contributor to luring in new customers, and sales grew 64% from fiscal years 2021 to 2023, spokesperson Amanda Hannah said.

The surge in popularity is reminiscent of L.L. Bean’s traditional hunting shoe, the iconic staple for trudging through rain and muck, which enjoyed its own moment a few years back, driven by college students.