MOSCOW, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - A little black dress and a Soviet painting, gold embroidery and Russian icons: fashion and art are brought together at an exhibition devoted to French fashion house Chanel that opened here on Thursday, September 18th.

Photo : AFP

"Chanel is a fashion phenomenon, an art phenomenon," Irina Antonova, director of the Pushkin Museum, said at a press conference announcing the opening of "Chanel: The Rules of Art," which runs until November 21.

The exhibition, in Moscow's premier foreign art gallery, displays Chanel dresses alongside paintings, photographs and sculptures from Western and Russian museum collections in five colour-themed sections.

Wafting through the exhibition is the scent of Chanel No. 5 perfume.

Antonova said that the elaborate design of the exhibition is close to the artistic vision of Chanel's founder Gabrielle Chanel (1883-1971), combining "an astonishing freedom and independence with rigour and a lot of imagination."

It offers a series of unexpected combinations, including in one room Chanel's classic little black dress, designed in 1926 and a byword for feminine elegance, next to paintings by Soviet avantgarde artist Alexander Rodchenko.

Gold-embroidered dresses hang in another hall alongside a 16th century Russian icon, Our Lady of Vladimir. Russian curator Vitaly Myshin explained that the combinations "give an idea of time, of time overcoming itself."