Courtesy of Chanel
The House of Chanel has long been associated with the world of cinema, whether it’s for the red carpet or on-screen wardrobe. Gabrielle Chanel’s foray into the American film industry began in 1930 when she met Samuel Goldwyn, the owner of the MGM studios, who asked her to transform his stars into fashion icons. After a brief stint, which included meeting and befriending the likes of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Gloria Swanson and other stars, her experience in Los Angeles was cut short as the studios were inappreciative of Chanel’s understated and refined allure.
However, French cinema embraced the Maison with arms wide open. Chanel’s modernity and timelessness birthed countless iconic relationships such as the one with a young Romy Schneider who was quoted saying, “When I put on my first ‘Chanel’, I realised I would never want anything else…(…) Chanel is a couturier like no other… Because it is a coherent, logical ‘organised’ whole: in the way we say the Doric order or the Corinthian order, there is a ‘Chanel order’, with its reasons, its rules, its rigour. It is an elegance that satisfies the mind even more than the eyes.”
“When I put on my first ‘Chanel’, I realised I would never want anything else…" - Romy Schneider
Other notable collaborations include Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels (1992) in which Victoria Abril wears a Chanel suit from start to finish, and Callas Forever by Franco Zeffirelli (2002). In 2016, several outfits were created especially for Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively in Café Society. In 2018, a suit from the Métiers d’art 2016/17 Paris Cosmopolite collection was made for Isabelle Huppert in the film Greta. In Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Chanel naturally found its place with the ambassador of the House, Margot Robbie.
This year, Chanel announces another special partnership in the world of cinema with ‘Spencer’ by Pablo Larraín – the story of an icon, Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart. She wears both clothes and jewels by Chanel, and in particular, a beige organza evening gown embellished with gold and silver round, oval or leaf-shaped sequins forming floral branches, look 82, from the Spring-Summer 1988 Haute Couture collection.
Chanel Beige Organza Evening Gown, Spring Summer 1988 Collection Look 82
In order to capture the essence of Pablo Larraín’s film as closely as possible, the House worked hand in hand with multi-award-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who shares more about the collaboration here.
Which one was the most iconic according to you?
Blue Tweed Jacket and Black Pleated Skirt, Ready to wear Fall Winter 1989/90
“The most iconic has to be the Haute Couture dress – we had the asked if we could try some ’80s evening dresses from the Archive – mainly with the idea of using them for incidental scenes and for a scene where Diana was trying on different dresses changing her mind about what to wear – there was also the main scene of Christmas evening where we needed an amazing dress – I had asked if there was a light coloured dress with a mermaid shape (volume at the hem) – as I was already thinking of how it would look with a coat over the top – but significantly I thought that it should have sleeves. So, all these amazing dresses arrived in London for Kristen’s first fitting – it was quite overwhelming – most of them were dark but amongst them was the original version of the beige dress. It was beautiful on the hanger, but once Kristen put it on – we all knew it had to have a big role in the movie!”
“But it didn’t end there… the dress was an original dress designed by Karl in the 1980s and was too precious to be worn repeatedly – for all the days needed for shooting including exterior night shoots – there was too great a danger of damage. For a moment we thought we wouldn’t be able to use it but incredibly Chanel offered to remake the dress in the Couture workrooms – an exact replica which meant recreating the embroidery and beading of the original – the skill of the artisans working at Chanel is incredible – when the dress arrived it was a perfect copy – none of the beauty had been lost – we were thrilled beyond words.”
