Chanel
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s house; jersey, the little black dress, No 5 perfume (1921), the bouclé suit and the 2.55 bag (1955).
Gabrielle Chanel opened a hat shop in Paris and then shops in Deauville and Biarritz. Her simple jersey garments and straight dresses were liberating compared with the laced-in silhouette of the pre-war years.
The perfume No 5 came in 1921 and the little black dress in 1926. The house closed when war broke out; Chanel reopened in 1954 and launched the bouclé suit and the quilted 2.55 bag. Karl Lagerfeld led the house from 1983 to 2019.
The interlocking Cs; bags have serial-number labels inside from the 1980s.