Look back far enough at any legacy fashion brand and you’ll discover little parcels of history that show the brand dabbled in more than just fashion. For Chanel, it was ballet—a stroke of chance that blossomed into a longstanding friendship, culminating in decades of support for this art form. It was the 1920s, and Gabrielle Chanel was part of the avant-garde artistic circle comprising poets, painters, and composers—including the founder of Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev. This friendship led her to be not just a patron but also a collaborator.
It was also the era when Chanel was pioneering liberating fashion for women—freedom of movement and a path to modern dressing. To underscore this, she designed ballet costumes for Le Train Bleu in 1924 that were simply beyond its time: swimsuits, tennis skirts, and bathing outfits. While Le Train Bleu was not the longest-running production by the Ballets Russes, it was remembered for its artistic collaboration. It also cemented Chanel as a cultural figure beyond fashion, linking the fashion house with dance and continuing its support to this day with the Paris Opera Ballet—and later in 2024, as the founding patron of the Paris Opera Junior Ballet.
The Junior Ballet is a new company comprising 24 dancers aged between 18 and 23 years old, and serves as a platform for burgeoning ballet talent. In fact, they will be making their way to Malaysia as part of the Junior Ballet Opera de Paris’ debut Asian performance at the prestigious Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in the Petronas Twin Towers. Chanel will be accompanying the Junior Ballet’s two performances on November 18th and 19th 2025. The show will have four ballets, including one choreographed by Julian Nicosia that will feature several Chanel-created stage costumes.
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