FASHION MANIFESTO

The process begins with tissue paper. A lot of tissue paper. There are more than 300 priceless Chanel garments on display as part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto exhibition, opening in December. Some are from the NGV’s own archives, but the vast majority – drop-waist jersey sheaths that skim the body like a stone across a river’s surface, woollen suits in furious shades of pink and plenty of Little Black Dresses – have made the 16,781-kilometre journey to Australia from France, where they either reside on display at the Palais Galliera, Paris’s leading fashion museum, or inside the storied archives known as the Patrimoine de Chanel.

Getting these items from Paris to Melbourne is painstaking and meticulous work, presided over by members of the Chanel team