Le Train Bleu, the Ballets Russes work costumed by Coco Chanel, premiered in Paris in 1924. Paris was the central European stage for many of Sergei Diaghilev’s most important productions and for Chanel’s own fashion career.
The ballet brought together fashion, literature, choreography, music, and visual art. Jean Cocteau wrote the scenario, Bronislava Nijinska choreographed it, Darius Milhaud composed the score, and Pablo Picasso designed the curtain. Chanel supplied costumes inspired by modern sports and leisure clothing.
The Paris premiere belongs to Chanel’s European theatre work, not her later work for Hollywood. In 1931, American producer Samuel Goldwyn hired Chanel to design costumes for films, a separate episode in her career.
Paris also became the long-term center of Chanel’s fashion business, but the city question here concerns the premiere of a specific ballet.