Art

To celebrate its 60th birthday this year, the creative team at Chloé dug through their archives and came up with 26 things—one for each letter of the alphabet—that represent the iconic French brand. Short films and photos accompany the mini stories, in addition to posts by 26 fashion bloggers, who each wrote about a letter.

The tribute runs concurrent to the Chloé exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, featuring signature pieces designed over the years by the house’s nine creative directors. The show takes place now through November 18; if you’re lucky enough to be in Paris over the next few weeks, it’s definitely worth stopping by.

We’ve highlighted a few of our favorite pieces from the Chloé archive:

G for Gaby: Founder Gaby Aghion, pictured above, grew up surrounded by her mother’s haute couture, but found it stuffy and constricting. Her goal with Chloé was to create easy-to-wear, cool, youthful clothes with couture sensibilities, available straight off the rack.

I for Innovators: Four years after debuting her collection at a Parisian café, Aghion showed these contrast-trim coats, which have come to epitomize the 1960s.

D for Deco: This art-deco-inspired dress, from the spring/summer 1966 collection, was likely designed by Karl Lagerfeld, who become Chloé’s creative director that year.

R for Rachmaninoff: Aghion steered the overall direction of the brand until it was sold to the Richemont Group in 1985. The dress pictured above was part of a 1973 collection inspired by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.

B for Banana: Stella McCartney became the brand’s creative director in 1997 and introduced a cheeky, feminine side with playful banana and pineapple prints.

E for Embroidery: Speaking of playful, the video above demonstrates the lighter side of old-world embroidery, which Aghion loved but wanted to implement in a fresh way.

We could go on forever—instead, explore the Chloé Alphabet for yourself. Be sure to watch the videos for M for Music, which talks about the brand’s runway-music composers, and V for Visit, which takes you through the Palais de Tokyo exhibit. Enjoy!