Coco’s world
Opening in Milan, Palazzo Morando, February-May 2021.
The locations to follow in Italy and abroad are TBC
By Federica Borghi and Michele Sancisi .
2021 will mark an important event for fashion history: it will be 50 years since the death of Coco Chanel, the most important character in contemporary fashion, the one who marked the beginning of a new modern era and created a new kind of elegance, freeing women from centuries of restraint and unnatural shapes.
An exhibition dedicated to Gabrielle and her extraordinary heritage will be launched In the Spring of 2021 at the beautiful Palazzo Morando, Milan council’s fashion and design museum, situated at the heart of Milan’s fashion district.
The show will be based on her biography of life as a woman, with all the passion of a romance novel, from which we perceive the exceptional vitality of her aesthetic still seen today in many stylists, especially in the world of Italian fashion.
The show, entitled Coco’s World, will combine an interactive experience, which has revolutionised the ways in which we exhibit works in recent years, with a journey both multi-sensory and physical, which will allow the public to sense Coco Chanel’s “inventions” through vision, tact, smell and sound.
Through images, objects, words and different sensory stimuli, this journey will rebuild Gabrielle’s story and that of the people closest to her, a journey rich in artistic and cultural inspiration told through the history of the 1900s, which the stylist experienced and moulded with her genius.
A series of settings of varying sizes will host a well thought out itinerary, eventually leading the visitor on a step by step discovery of Chanel’s world, through sections and chapters of her life and creations, developed in a chronological and themed order.
The set up will show attention to detail and will be of very refined taste, with a theatrical structure aimed at communicating the evocative nature of a character as complex as the century in which she lived; she lived through it as an artist, business woman and in her own way became the founder of a new feminine philosophy.
The accompanying texts, written with a story-telling approach, will be the key to accessing the different sections of the show along with other environmental and sensory stimuli. For example, you’ll be able to touch the Jersey fabric representing revolution, as well as being seduced by the scent of the famous No.5.
The show will also incorporate themed laboratories aimed at different audiences: from children’s games to semi-professional discussions, which will be operated by Milan’s fashion schools and its universities (including the Marangoni Institute, Naba, IED, Raffles, etc…) in their designated spaces at the end of the exhibition’s journey.
