Darius Milhaud wrote the score for Le Train Bleu, the 1924 Ballets Russes production for which Coco Chanel designed costumes.
Le Train Bleu premiered in Paris in 1924 as part of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Jean Cocteau supplied the scenario, Bronislava Nijinska choreographed the ballet, and Pablo Picasso designed the curtain. Chanel created costumes that reflected fashionable sports and seaside leisure, including the modern athletic world suggested by the title.
Milhaud’s music was adapted from his ballet Le Train Bleu. The production brought together major figures from fashion, music, visual art, literature, and dance. That collaboration is one reason it remains a notable example of interdisciplinary modernism in the 1920s.
The ballet’s title can cause confusion because several celebrated French composers were active in Paris at the time. The score for Le Train Bleu is specifically associated with Darius Milhaud.