Coco Chanel’s 1922 stage collaboration with Jean Cocteau was Antigone.
Cocteau adapted Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy for a modern Parisian stage production in 1922, and Coco Chanel designed the costumes. The production formed part of Chanel’s growing involvement with theatre, ballet, and avant-garde artistic circles beyond commercial fashion.
The collaboration showed how her design approach could be applied to performance. Stage costumes had to communicate character, period, and movement, while also working as part of a unified visual production. Chanel later contributed to other theatrical and ballet projects, including Le Train Bleu.
Antigone is sometimes confused with Cocteau’s later mythological works, particularly Orphée. Those are separate projects. The 1922 production connected Chanel specifically with Cocteau’s adaptation of the Sophoclean tragedy.