Chanel Madmoiselle Prive Exhibition

 Last week, I went to the Chanel exhibition, Madmoiselle Prive at the Saatchi Gallery in Sloane Square. The exhibition, which was in London for only three weeks, was a clever and modern twist on Chanel, an old fashion house which symbolizes classic style and effortless glamour. I went on the final day, a fogging Sunday morning, which I spent for almost an hour queuing to get into the gallery (it was a very slow craw but serves me right going on the final day). But there was plenty to see along the way, such as the beautiful Chanel botanical garden full of flowers and lavish plants, and the chance to download the free Madmoiselle Prive app, which you used around the first floor of the exhibition.

Once inside, you followed the life of Gabrielle Coco Chanel, starting off with her first hat shop in Paris which progressed through to womens' clothing, perfumes and jewellery. A replica mirrored staircase was built inside, as were lots of interactive doors which you could unlock through the app on your phone. It was all very technical. As I walked around, there were plenty of photo opportunities with lavish furnishings, curtains of delicate fabric hanging from the ceiling and beautiful fine jewellery. The whole exhibition focused on Chanel high jewellery, particularly the "Bijoux de Diamants" collection created in 1932 and of course, the classic Chanel N°5 perfume. It was nice to read the history and inspirations behind some of Coco's most famous icons, such as the double C logo which was inspired from her difficult childhood spent at an orphanage.

There was a lovely garden and a homage to her famous perfume scents, in a modern perfumery complete with quotes along the walls. But the read treat was the final large room on the second floor. Here was the real Haute Couture and fine jewellery, complete with lots and lots of security - completely understandable seeing as these diamonds, rubies and emeralds are decades and decades of years old. It was displayed with lots of lights, eerily lighting up the clothes on show as well as stunning black and white photographs by Karl Lagerfeld of all his many muses, which included Keira Knightley, Vanessa Paradis and Lily Collins. An entertaining short film showing Coco Chanel come and visit the future of her fashion house and have an imaginary conversation with Lagerfeld himself. 

Overall, it wasn't the best exhibition I've seen as I felt that Chanel could have done so much more with the heritage of their fashion house. I get that Lagerfeld wanted people to see how cool and modern he has made Chanel, but the main appeal of this fashion heavyweight is its timeless look and this exhibition focused more on the future rather than on the rich past. At times, I was a little bored and disappointed, but then I was comparing it to the fantastic Louis Vuitton Series 3 exhibition I went to a couple of weeks ago which I loved and suited my personal tastes more. Even so, it was worth the visit and the free goody bag was a nice touch too!