Mademoiselle Privé exhibition at London's Saatchi Gallery
A friend and I have been longing to see Chanel at the Saatchi, however whilst whizzing to clients in Chelsea the hoards of people in Duke of York square was rather a deterrent. We decided one early morning was the best solution; and we were right.
The queue was remarkably French with plenty of Chanel on proud display. We were instructed to download the Mademoiselle Prive app, that enhances the experience with interactive content, which is revealed throughout the visit. It was then that I felt sorry for the older men queuing with us who didn’t have a smart phone. The exhibition is extremely tech heavy.
Through the app, an otherwise white room is transformed into Madame Chanel’s entry hall.
A lot was made of her corormandel screens a home from home for her with her frequent moves and a familiar for us with our recent work with Fredrick Wimsett who also creates the most beautiful screens.
A picture of some fish and Chanel fishing with friends with frames drawn on by marker pen did not do her love of Scotland and tweed justice there is a lack of real information on tweed.
The exhibition does little to explore the weave, the magnificent colours and the practically of the fabric.
After the entrance hall and her bedroom you progress to another room that is all white with hats mocked up, also in white to show Chanel's early career as a milliner. Her voice is poured into the room with a slight American accent!
Next up is a giant cage with a vast fake diamond necklace – all very social media friendly by lacking in real substance.
Chanel's lucky ‘totems’ are given a Karl Lagerfeld make over - to represent lucky numbers, an odd pearl statue - wheat annd a strippy David the end of this room was signaled by a catapult wrapped in odd bits of tweed.
A sensory room was quite simply a room hung with fabrics, again in white.
The No. 5 work room contains a bubbly vats but no actual scents.
A garden paying more homage to Monsieur Karl than Madame Coco is more of a modern art exhibition of box hedge although the neat boxing graphically it has impact.
More impressive was a room of creations - cleverly lit and framed with Chanel ambassadors including Lilly Rose Depp & Keria Knightly.
A witty video of a discussion between “Coco and Karl” was rather clever although unnecessary was a contrived glass of red wine untouched on the Karls desk.
The dresses and details onembroidery were by far the most interesting.
The exibtion as a tool to real in the young to a brand now headed by a 84 year old is clever the use of technology is brilliant.
The exhibition is a success but the reality is it is more for the ego of artistic monsieur Karl Lagerfeld than designer Madame Coco
