What is the famous Chanel spirit for Vanessa Paradis, who has embodied it since 1991 and the cult advertising film by Jean-Paul Goude who locked her in a cage like a "bird of paradise", he said?
Freedom rather than confinement.
“Gabrielle Chanel is one of the first to
unlock
women.
In 1916, they were still very much prevented… ”smiles the singer in front of a Chanel striped top from that year, her first iconic creation, in the middle of the First World War.
The artist, with whom we visit the exhibition "Gabrielle Chanel, fashion manifesto", this Wednesday afternoon at the Palais Galliera, in Paris, remains in stop in front of this revolutionary sailor top for the time, by its apparent simplicity. and her refusal of the genre: “Chanel is already playing with a certain masculinity.
This striped sweater is so moving.
It evokes morning and evening, comfort and softness, femininity and childhood.
The Chanel spirit?
It's a garment that will fall perfectly on each of us, ”says Vanessa Paradis as if she was speaking on behalf of all women.
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However, fashion was not his world.
When she was spotted by the luxury brand in the early 1990s, the interpreter of “Joe the taxi” was barely major: “I didn't know all that.
Me, it was ripped jeans and vintage shops.
I was a little French pop singer.
At the time, Chanel was Carole Bouquet, Inès de la Fressange.
Me, I did not think of dressing as a woman even if every teenager sometimes likes to play with this idea.
"
Precisely, she plays in the exhibition, twirls, ignites.
“She's crazy!
", She cries with lit eyes, in front of a 1930s evening dress." Suspenders are jewelry.
The detail is killing me.
She is sublime.
"The actress blows on a fabric to make it dance:" It looks like the dresses will start to move in two seconds.
This exhibition is stunning.
"
"The most sober, the most humble, the most elegant style"
She is asked if she who is so associated with the modernity of the Karl Lagerfeld years could wear these "old" dresses.
Apparently, we said something stupid.
“The thirties are one of my favorite times.
I can wear it, and how lucky I am.
The Chanel trademark is models that come back from one era to another, with different fabrics.
"
At the 2004 Oscars, she actually wore a vintage white Mademoiselle dress on the red carpet.
We remind her of an interview in which she praised the purity of these lines in the face of the somewhat vain "spectacular" of certain evening dresses at this ceremony: "Do not get angry with Hollywood," she half smiles, a little scowling.
But it is not always in the subtlety.
Some dresses are sublime in these ceremonies but… not all.
Chanel is always the most sober, the most humble, the most elegant style.
"
His daughter Lily-Rose, in turn, the muse
Today, it's also the family spirit: his daughter Lily-Rose has also become the brand's muse.
“She even started younger than me, at sixteen.
There are many more muses from music and cinema than in my time.
For Lily-Rose, I find it sublime and very reassuring.
We feel protected in this house ”.
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She returns to this bubble of evening dresses with floral motifs.
Chanel has been copied a lot.
The founder didn't care.
She knew that her flexible models would never go out of fashion.
As Vanessa Paradis says: “These very, very beautiful clothes say:
Let women live their lives.
We save all the time: we can wear them in the office and in the evening.
It is convenient ".
Only fifteen minutes have passed.
The muse's schedule is busy.
She's running… in her feather-trimmed white organza blouse and Chanel shoes, of course.
What is a muse?
Our heads are spinning in the face of the list of Chanel muses and ambassadors, who also include men (perfumes, glasses, etc.).
The former embody the brand in advertising campaigns, the latter represent the house whose colors they wear during ceremonies in Cannes, Venice, at the Césars ...
Today, we can no longer count them: Margot Robbie, Lily-Rose Depp and her mother Vanessa Paradis, Kristen Stewart, Gaspard Ulliel, Pharrell Williams, Keira Knightley, Marine Vacth, Angèle, Isabelle Adjani, Sébastien Tellier, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Anna Mouglalis, non-exhaustive list of the current "team" ...
A way of bringing the brand to life through elected representatives, which was born from the start, at the start of the 20th century: “Gabrielle Chanel was surrounded by actresses, she lived in an artistic world.
From the start, she worked with actresses who wore her hats and then her dresses, during the silent movie era of the 1910s. It wasn't contracts like now, but she always wanted to associate the brand with visuals. very strong, women we are talking about, ”says Chanel.
The first muse was Coco Chanel herself, photographed by François Kollar, the star of the advertising photo of the time, for the very first advertising campaign of the perfume n ° 5 almost a century ago.
Unique case of a seamstress who advertises herself, a sort of superstar ahead of time, long before her distant heir Karl Lagerfeld, who fits perfectly in the lineage of the founder.
Strong women always, from the actress Delphine Seyrig, very committed to feminism from the sixties, to Jeanne Moreau, via Romy Schneider, Catherine Deneuve and many others.
Coco Chanel ran her house for almost sixty years.
Fidelities that we find in very long companionship, From Inès de la Fressange to Vanessa Paradis, who will celebrate her thirty years of Chanel, where we do not swear by youth.