1920s Gabrielle Chanel Coat, Kitmir Embroidery.
Auction Date: December 17, 2021
Sold for: $13,200
Lot: 5146
Circa 1924.
The kasha colored wool coat with fur collar and cuffs, embroidered throughout with geometric lines and geometric patterns. The embroidery machine embroidered chain stitch, or cornely. Lined in silk satin.
Label: Gabrielle Chanel MADE IN PARIS. Numbered in ink to underside of label in black handwritten ink, 24456.
Approximate Measurements: Bust 40 allowing for a few inches of overlap 41 L. from nape of neck, back, to hem edge..
Provenance: Property of a Descendent of the Original Owner, Eastern Seaboard.
Condition: The overall condition of the coat is very good the embroidery is in very good order with a few minor breaks to stitches and loose stitches. The fabric lightly worn. The label has been twisted about, with hints that it was used to hang up the garment on a hook There is pulling/tearing at the lining, sleeves.Sleeve linings repaired near tears. The fur is in relatively good condition. Hem appears to have original bias tape and stitching.
Notes: 1922 was the first year of Chanels Russian collections, influenced by her affair with Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, who arrived in Paris after the Russian Revolution. The Grand Dukes sister, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, also arrived in Paris. The latter used the embroidery skills taught to her as a well-bred girl, to create a cooperative workshop, whose designs synthesized Russian nativist / folk styles together with modernist geometric and floral decorations. Chanel became the main patron of the Kitmir workshop.
A similarly embroidered Chanel coat is illustrated LArt et la Mode, ed. George Dorival, Paris 1922. Other examples of Kitmir embroidery are in collections of the Victoria Albert Museum, London, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This is a rare survivor of Chanels pre Flapper Russian period.