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Monaco is stepping back into the glittering chaos of the 1920s this summer, as the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco – Villa Paloma unveils an ambitious new exhibition celebrating the radical elegance of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. Titled “Les Années folles de Coco Chanel”, the showcase runs from June 19 to October 5, offering visitors a rare and intimate look at the designer’s transformative impact on fashion, culture, and the liberated spirit of the Jazz Age.
Bringing together over 200 objects, the exhibition immerses guests in the visual and cultural whirlwind that defined Chanel’s rise to prominence. Thirty original creations by Chanel are displayed alongside forty works by contemporaries like Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Cocteau, Van Dongen, and Marie Laurencin. Rare photographs by the likes of Man Ray, Dora Kallmus, and Edward Steichen lend the show its vivid human texture, capturing both Chanel herself and the era’s “new women” – confident, stylish, and utterly uncompromising.
The exhibition unfolds across three core themes. First is the explosion of outdoor leisure and the dawn of Riviera chic – a style Chanel pioneered with her vision of relaxed yet luxurious fashion. Then comes the deep influence of Slavic cultures and the Ballets Russes, whose Monte-Carlo-based troupe ignited a wave of aesthetic experimentation in which Chanel took part. Finally, the exhibition explores the birth of the Riviera style itself: an effortless blend of sporty ease and refined glamour that continues to define summer wardrobes to this day.
Long before the Côte d’Azur became synonymous with jet-set elegance, Chanel was shaping its future. She opened her Monte-Carlo boutique in 1914, introduced the world to Chanel No. 5 in nearby Grasse in 1921, and built her beloved Villa La Pausa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in 1928. These landmarks, and the spirit behind them, are central to the exhibition’s narrative.
Beyond couture, Chanel’s role as a cultural patron is also spotlighted. Her collaboration with Jean Cocteau on the avant-garde ballet Le Train Bleu and her support of figures like Stravinsky and Diaghilev underline her presence at the heart of Europe’s artistic avant-garde.
In a striking contemporary counterpoint, artist Chloé Royer contributes a new installation, “Of Limbs and Other Things”, comprising fifteen sculptural works that examine the evolution of the female form – echoing Chanel’s legacy of redefining femininity.
This exhibition is more than a retrospective; it’s a celebration of an era when fashion became freedom, and when a visionary woman reimagined the very shape of modern life. Les Années folles de Coco Chanel invites us to relive a time when style was revolution, and the Riviera was its runway.
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