{"id":82687,"date":"2023-10-27T20:34:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T20:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=82687"},"modified":"2024-03-20T19:34:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T19:34:28","slug":"chloe-gaby-aghion-jewish-museum-new-york","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/chloe-gaby-aghion-jewish-museum-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chloe\"
(Left to Right) Blouse designed by Hannah MacGibbon, Resort 2009; Dress designed by Clare Waight Keller, Spring\/Summer 2016; Jumpsuit designed by Phoebe Philo, Fall\/Winter 2003. Photos: Jewish Museum, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s something so quintessentially French about the girlish insouciance of Chlo\u00e9<\/a> from the billowing silk pussy-bow blouses to the wild horse prints and sweet broderie anglaise. Even the name sounds like that of some inimitably chic Parisienne who knows her H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Cixous from her Luce Irigaray. The Chlo\u00e9 woman is above all smart, cool, and worldly. She\u2019s a woman very much like the six female creative directors who have helmed the label over the past quarter century: Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo, Hannah MacGibbon, Clare Waight Keller, Natacha Ramsay-Levi, and Gabriela Hearst.<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\"
Gaby Aghion in sculptor C\u00e9line Chalem\u2019s studio, ca. 1980. Photo: Chlo\u00e9 Archive, Paris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the exception of Ramsay-Levi, none of the house\u2019s recent creative directors are themselves French (Hearst is Uruguayan American, and the others are British). Perhaps most intriguingly, neither was Chlo\u00e9 founder Gaby Aghion, who died in Paris in 2014 at age 93\u2014at least not initially. A Jew born in Alexandria, Egypt, she immigrated to Paris in the aftermath of World War II and launched Chlo\u00e9 in 1952. Aghion named her label after a friend, Chlo\u00e9 Huysmans, claiming that she liked the elegant roundness of the letters and the youthful femininity the name conveyed.<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\"
Chlo\u00e9 Fall\/Winter 1958 fashion show at Brasserie Lipp. Photo: Chlo\u00e9 Archive, Paris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This fall, the Jewish Museum presents \u201cMood of the Moment: Gaby Aghion and the House of Chlo\u00e9,\u201d open through February 18, 2024, the first major museum show on the French maison. It tells the forgotten story of Aghion\u2019s Jewish roots and the pivotal role she played in defining the fashion industry as we know it today. The exhibit follows the museum\u2019s recent shows on two path-breaking Jewish creatives: cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein and Downtown Gallery founder Edith Halpert, an early champion of modern art icons like Georgia O\u2019Keeffe and Jacob Lawrence. \u201cShe\u2019s a visionary woman who changed the course of history,\u201d says director emerita and exhibition project director Claudia Gould on why she selected Aghion for the final installment of this trilogy.<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\"
Shirt designed by Stella McCartney, Spring\/Summer 2001. Photo: Jewish Museum, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through personal photos, \u201cMood of the Moment\u201d charts Aghion\u2019s early years in Egypt and her arrival in Paris, where her husband established an art gallery and the couple were soon welcomed into the Left Bank intelligentsia. Although Aghion had long been interested in fashion and the caf\u00e9s where she and her friends hung out were only a couple of miles from the haute couture ateliers on Avenue Montaigne, her bourgeois bohemian milieu might as well have been light years away from the hidebound world where couturiers like Christian Dior and Crist\u00f3bal Balenciaga created madeto-measure garments for high society.<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\"
\u201cAngkor\u201d dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld, Spring\/Summer 1983. Photo: Jewish Museum, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly a decade before Yves Saint Laurent launched his pr\u00eat-\u00e0-porter label, Rive Gauche, Aghion began staging fashion shows over croissants and caf\u00e9 au lait at her favorite Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s haunts like Caf\u00e9 de Flor and Brasserie Lipp. Models strolled between the tables in order to emphasize the easy movement of little dresses she sold off the rack in nearby boutiques and which were inspired by the lightweight fashions she had worn growing up. \u201cChlo\u00e9 was always ahead of its time, and the work is actually just very elegant and simple,\u201d says Gould.<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\"
Coat designed by Martine Setbon, Fall\/Winter 1990. Photo: Jewish Museum, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aghion was the first to admit that she wasn\u2019t a great designer. But she was excellent at defining house codes that resonated with progressive modern women and surrounding herself with a talented design team who could help her riff on them. The house\u2019s longest standing collaboration was with Karl Lagerfeld, who joined the house in 1964 and became its face until he left for Chanel in 1984. The exhibit features nearly 150 garments, including representative examples from each of Chlo\u00e9\u2019s designers, including a Karl Lagerfeld violin dress, a Stella McCartney banana print T-shirt, and a Phoebe Philo jumpsuit.<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\"
Blouse designed by Gabriela Hearst, Fall\/Winter 2021. Photo: Jewish Museum, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The final room in the exhibit is dedicated to the most iconic of all Chlo\u00e9 codes, the pussy-bow blouse (Aghion herself always wore one with a black skirt), and features 50 iterations in soft shades of cream, milk, honey, and gold. The blouses haven\u2019t been steamed, which is an intentional choice so they look as though a woman just took them off. \u201cWhen you untie the bow there\u2019s a little crinkle,\u201d says Gould. \u201cIt shows you\u2019ve lived in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chloe\"
Dress designed by Natacha Ramsay-Levi in collaboration\u00a0with Rita Ackermann, Fall\/Winter 2020. Photo: Jewish Museum, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Read GRAZIA USA<\/em>\u2019s Fall Issue<\/a> featuring cover star Ziwe\u00a0Fumudoh<\/a>:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/div>