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23 Dec 2021

A Curator’s Guide to “Gabrielle Chanel.Fashion Manifesto”

NGV Fashion and Textile Curator, Danielle Whitfield introduces the first exhibition dedicated solely to fashion icon Gabrielle Chanel.
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The exhibition “Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto” is now showing at the NGV in Melbourne until April 2022. In this exclusive video, made especially for T Australia, Fashion and Textiles Curator Danielle Whitfield takes us through her three favourite pieces.

Photography by Lucy E Cousins.
Photography by Lucy E Cousins.

Featuring over 100 original, perfectly preserved designs dating back to the 1920s, the extensive exhibition was first shown at the Palais Galliera – the City of Paris Fashion Museum – early last year, but on display in Melbourne are additional designs from the NGV’s own collection, including a favourite of Whitfield’s. “I’m really proud we’ve been able to acquire a gorgeous red velvet evening cape from the 1920s, which will now feature in this exhibition,” she says. “It shows the restrained luxury that Chanel really advocated for, as well as a purity of material.”

Photography by Lucy E Cousins.
Photography by Lucy E Cousins.

An Exclusive Guide to the "Gabrielle Chanel.Fashion Manifesto" Exhibition

Photography by Lucy E Cousins.
Photography by Lucy E Cousins.

For more about this exhibition, read our article “Gabrielle Chanel, All in the Detail”, in our current issue (on sale now), and online via this link

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