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Chanel. In Art Law
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September 27 - November 21
Pushkin Fine Arts Museum 
Chanel grew up in an orphanage and worked her way up through her own genius to the highest corridors of social power where she circulated with her friends who were dukes and duchesses, business moguls and media barons, famous personalities and the political power elite. But she never excluded, or forgot the little guys - her style democratized fashion for women, she invented "sportswear" to ease the constraints of corsets and whalebones and she detested pretentiousness and snobbery. She wanted all women to feel free to be who they wanted to be, and to feel free in their clothes. She invented "separates" dressing for women, and she made sportswear available to them - women could play a game of tennis in white jersey pants instead of tripping over long skirts and gasping for breath though corsets.
Chanel made sun-tans bourgeois and desireable - a status symbol advertizing the good life - where they had previously been looked down upon because they were a sign of "field work" or outdoor manual labor. She invented tanning creams, lotions and make-up that allowed a woman to spend a day at the beach without ravaging her skin or diminishing her elegance. Examples of these products and their extrordinarly modernist packaging are on view at the show. What could be simpler than a white box with a thin black line and two discreet reversed "C's?"
Chanel overturned stifling snobbery and airless conventions and in the process invented a modernist framework for women's fashions that is as contemporary and wearable now as it was in her day; she would be so pleased to see female senators, female corporate heads and female attorneys and judges wearing her famous suits today. When she first created her suits and jersey dresses and coats for women, they did not hold such positions in society; but in her forward-thinking imagination that had no boundaries, females could and would by jove become judges and senators, so she created a style for them that would empower, not constrict, their forward progress. Men love women in Chanel suits as well. She borrowed heavily from menswear - and menswear fabrics - longing for the clean-cut elegance, mobility and wearibility of their garments.
 Everything that Gabriel Chanel made in haute couture for theatre and cinema legally belongs to the art world. Chanel’s creativity in the true patterns of her models from The House of Chanel collection is presented among the masterpieces of the 20th century and works of the modern artists.
“We were glad to support this project – Irina Antonova (director of Pushkin Fine Arts Museum ) says. Fashion became an integral part of the modern culture, and the greatest museums in the world dedicate their exhibitions to it. In some way it happened because of Gabriel Chanel, whose creative search was very close to the esthetic of the last century. And the Russian audience is incredibly interested in “the Russian component” of Chanel’s life, which influenced her very much.”
A founder and initiator of the main fashion development, Gabriel Chanel strongly felt spirit of the times and used it in her creativity. She was surrounded by the artists, musicians and painters (and Russian as well). The exhibition reflects Chanel’s connections with such masters as Stravinsky, Lifar, Zdanevich, Picasso, Cocteau.
The exhibition is presented not chronologically but on the basis of 5 main Chanel’s innovations and symbols: “Black”, “Venice”, “Red”, “Sands”, “Tweed-tweeds”. All the halls are draped with the historical Chanel fabrics and sprinkled with the famous Chanel perfumes, not to mention costumes and dresses, designed by Gabriel.
Among the exhibits – paintings by Gainsboro, Constable, Renoir, Picasso, Laroinov, Rodchenko; sculptures by Giacometti) and Lipchitz; photographs by Mann, Testino and others. Among the participants of the project are great world museums, including Tate Gallery, Picasso Museum in Paris, Pompidou Center and many private galleries and art collections.
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