House of Chanel | Evening ensemble | French | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Couture Line House of Chanel French

Designer Karl Lagerfeld French, born Germany

Design House House of Chanel French

Not on view

Lagerfeld, who has taken the eighteenth century as a Leitmotif of his art and life from residences and domestic interiors, to his fashion, and even to a brief personal whim of powdering his hair, has seized the bravura assertion from the court gown, opening up at center front. For Lagerfeld, the condensed and ironic image is both Versailles and showgirl, aristocracy and vulgarity. Other Lagerfeld for Chanel references to the eighteenth century include the 1980s Watteau-back gowns and the 1985 Pierrot, or Gilles suit derived from the Watteau painting.