Curated by Andrew Bolton and Harold Kota

Perhaps nothing in culture more effectively validates the Platonic distrust in physical forms than fashion. By its very definition, fashion hinges on a temporality that condemns its participants to imminent outdatedness. One name in couture has, however, managed to achieve household status while always remaining à la mode, and that is Chanel. Deemed a reassessment of aesthetic values rather than a retrospective, this show spins through eighty years of Chanel history (1920–2000) and more than fifty dresses from the label’s Parisian archive—naturally, with matching shoes and accessories. The sleek modernism of Coco Chanel’s wool suits and quilted-leather bags is contrasted with current house-heir Karl Lagerfeld’s audacious postmodernist rhyming on his predecessor’s fabrics and cuts.

— Christopher Bollen