Ensemble
Gabrielle Chanel is the designer most responsible for establishing the modern way of dressing that encompasses comfort, function and simplicity. The design of this ensemble represents continuity with work from Chanel's early career in Deauville, where she first began wearing and then making sporty clothes in humble fabrics inspired by menswear and working class garments. Sailor's uniforms provided inspiration for some of her early designs and here she returned to that source. In this adaptation the skirt had a three-button drop front, like sailor's pants and the sash alludes to the traditional tie worn on the sailor's middy collar. With this design, Chanel revitalized a classic design from her own archive.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ensemble
- Design House: House of Chanel (French, founded 1910)
- Designer: Gabrielle Chanel (French, Saumur 1883–1971 Paris)
- Date: ca. 1967
- Culture: French
- Medium: wool, silk, metal
- Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Jane Holzer, 1986
- Object Number: 2009.300.566a–d
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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Multiple artists/makers
fall/winter 1987–88
Multiple artists/makers
spring/summer 2009–10
Multiple artists/makers
fall/winter 2012–13
House of Chanel
Gabrielle Chanel
1937
House of Chanel
Gabrielle Chanel
1937–38
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