Coco Chanel to get Met Museum accolade

NEW YORK, March 4 (UPI) -- New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will exhibit 60 fashion designs and accessories created by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel.

Harold Koda, the Met's chief costume curator, said the show May 5 through Aug. 7 will draw heavily on the Chanel Archives as well as the Costume Institute's collection and the holdings of the Fashion and Textile Museum in Paris.

Period examples will be juxtaposed with the work of Karl Lagergfveld, who joined the House of Chanel in 1983, 12 years after Chanel's death, and revitalized the spirit of the fashion house.

The announcement came five years after a very public tiff between the museum and the House of Chanel over Lagerfeld's insistence on combining Chanel's clothes with the work of contemporary designers in an exhibit proposed for the spring of 2000. Chanel withdrew $1 million in sponsorship funds and the Met canceled the exhibition.

"Now I want the experience to be nice for everybody and to have a beautiful show," said Koda, who added that the exhibition is being sponsored by Chanel with additional support by Conde Nast, the magazine publisher.