A Blush of Rose Octo2012ablushofrose

CHANEL Little Black Jacket.

Saatchi Gallery - Duke of York's Square London.

Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld opened the CHANEL Little Black Jacket exhibition with a host of friends to run for just over 3 weeks from 14th October to 4th November.

CHANEL is often quoted or referenced as the Designer who brought the Little Black Dress to the World. The exhibit looks at another iconic piece from the CHANEL stable that has found it's way into the Modern Woman's wardrobe.

The CHANEL Little Black Jacket is the multi-tasking staple addition to the international ladies wardrobe. You can wear it any way. With Jeans, with a skirt matching or co-ordinating, over a dress for the office or for the evening. Also it would look good on the shoulders complimenting a dress or gown on your way to a Black or White tie event.

Karl photographs 109 celebrities. Faces included Models with a close relationship to the House, Ines de la Fressange, Vanessa Paradis, Stella Tennant & Poppy Delevigne. Both Men and Women wear the four pocketed jacket showing a new versatility of this modern piece that takes it to a world beyond the Little Black Dress. It's a Man's jacket that CHANEL adapted and re-styled to be worn by Women, now it's come full circle and is worn by Men also.

It was very easy to pass much of an afternoon touring the galleries of the exhibit.

I think what struck me after looking at the Myriad of faces and images was that the style of the Portraiture itself is very classical. This is contemporary edition of Van Dyke of Reynolds, Singer Sargent and Kauffman. The simplicity of shooting these images in Black and White belies the classical elegance of composition. This an art presentation not just Karl and a group of his friends doing a press piece for CHANEL.

I found myself having flash backs to the Van Dyke exhibit at Tate Britan a couple of years ago as I sat and looked around the exhibition after my first viewing of the pictures.

What I really liked the the cross section of sitters in the portraits. Artists and musician's, fashion's key players from in front of the camera and behind the desk. Many different generations from different corners of the Globe.

For my part the favourite pictures where of the faces from the fashion world and those closest with the world of CHANEL in the present. Daphne Guinness strikes an energetic pose while Elle Fanning looks Angelic and cool.