Some spaces become museums, while others are so much like walk-in pieces of art they are photographed and put in other museums. One of those residences is Coco Chanel’s apartment in Paris. Starting today, the second floor of 31, rue Cambon is the subject of an exhibition of photographs by Sam Taylor-Johnson at the Saatchi Gallery, simply titled Second Floor. Originally shot in connection with Justine Picardie’s biography on the designer, Chanel – Her Life from 2011, Taylor-Johnson’s pictures provide a rare glimpse into the personal life and home of the woman, who revolutionised women’s fashion.
“I love the fact that there is no bedroom,” Sam says. “It was a place of work, entertaining and a thought space. It seems so practical and sensible to close the door on one space and then go elsewhere to sleep.” The designer famously spent her nights at the Ritz – every night – and would walk across the street to no. 31 in the morning, the building, which also houses the Chanel haute couture salons and the original flagship store. As she was making her way, a porter would alert the house so a perfume lady employed exclusively to scent the rooms with Chanel No. 5 could do her thing.
Taylor-Johnson, who just finished her directorial work on Fifty Shades of Grey, admits the Chanel undertaking wasn’t without concern. “I’m such a people photographer,” she says. “How was I going to photograph an interior and try and reflect a person within that interior? I went into the apartment feeling full of trepidation. I did not research in advance. I thought, ‘Why not go and do it?’ Sometimes, if you look at past images like the legendary Horst portrait of Coco Chanel in the chair, those photographs influence you. I went in as a blank slate.” As the photographer would soon realise, however, the apartments were as lively as ever.
Kept intact since Chanel’s death in 1971 – bar that white satin-covered bergère Horst photographed her on in 1937 acquired by the house some thirty years ago, and the stiff wooden chair Chanel would sit on during fittings downstairs in the haute couture salons – every room is covered in the things she liked best. Memorabilia connected to her illustrious romances sits next to gifts from Salvador Dali and the symbols Chanel surrounded herself with in all her superstition: lions like her star sign, wheat for prosperity, her beloved camellia flowers, and the number five, which became her lucky number following the success of her famous fragrance.
“There was clearly a strong mystical and spiritual aspect to her life – within the crystal ball, the Buddha, and the crucifix – as well as her intense love for Boy Capel. Around the apartment, I noticed there were many couplings and pairings such as the Japanese deer and the two little lovebirds in a cage. These ‘couplings’ showed a sense of love, loss and unity. On top of those layers, there was a great sense of innate style,” Sam says. “As I went about photographing items and aspects, it became a study with many layers.”
Chanel’s impossibly modern approach was as present in her home as it was in her design. Her famous mirrored Art Deco staircase was the absolute height of fashion when her lover Boy Capel lent her the money to buy the building in 1920, and the soft beige suede sofa – only offered to her best of friends – was practically futuristic in the 1920s. (On a fun fact note, Frasier has a replica of it in his drawing room in the 90s sitcom.) And as Sam says, “Everything felt timeless and homogenised by its placement together. If you put any of those objects in another environment, they would stand out. But there, they were unified. The apartment is a lifelong curation of a life through objects.”
Second Floor runs from 12 September – 22 September at the Saatchi Gallery on King’s Road. Opening hours are 10.00am – 6.00pm, seven days a week, last entry 5:30pm. Admission is free.
Credits
Text Anders Christian Madsen
Photography Sam Taylor-Johnson