Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Shanghai) runs until March 14 the "Culture CHANEL" exhibition dedicated to none but the iconic Maison de Chanel. If you happen to find yourself around the big city do take some time for this nice excursion into CHANEL's universe.

Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Shanghai) runs until March 14 the "Culture CHANEL" exhibition dedicated to none but the iconic Maison de Chanel.

Fashion history for sure won't be the same without her influence, and I guess you would need some sort of Chinese version of Louvre to include all that CHANEL can offer. So don't expect to see a thousand of outfits hanged around, tons of accessories, bottles of Chanel no.5 covering the Museum's walls, replicas of La Pausa (her villa) or original furniture that the Mademoiselle used, but be prepared to discover a piece of her personal universe, the essence of her most precious jewel – House of CHANEL.

Indeed the whole exhibition is about "culture CHANEL", as equally focuses on all the aspects that make this universe, from its creator's personal life and the symbols of her achievement to the man who beautifully continues the House's legacy, Karl Lagerfeld.

The display at MOCA is curated by the French art critique Jean-Louis Froment, a very familiar presence within the CHANEL universe. In 2007 he put his signature on another exhibition – "CHANEL. L'art comme Universe" at Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. The showcase then followed five major themes in order to tell the House's story, five essential colors and patterns that circle CHANEL's world: black, red, gold, jersey and tweed.

Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Shanghai) runs until March 14 the "Culture CHANEL" exhibition dedicated to none but the iconic Maison de Chanel.

For the Shanghai display he followed the same scenario and divided the museum's two floors into five new themes: Origin, Abstraction, Invisibility, Liberty and Imaginary "to go deeply into the historical background of the values of CHANEL, striking a cord with the fundamentals of the life story of its creator, Gabrielle Chanel." (Jean-Louis Froment, exhibition's booklet).

Even if you might get a little confused while reading the long event's guide trying to identify the right object in the big glass cases, do take your time to make the connections between all the exhibits and you'll discover the story behind the "flamboyant simplicity" of Mademoiselle Chanel's spell. You are not going to have an encounter only with the people and creations directly related with CHANEL but also with different artifacts that expose the roots of CHANEL's legacy: photos, places, books, manuscripts, poets, painters, musicians that have at least one thing in common – Coco Chanel.

Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Shanghai) runs until March 14 the "Culture CHANEL" exhibition dedicated to none but the iconic Maison de Chanel.

Along the five-themed display the exhibition includes two more rooms. One of them, the Projection room, presents a loop of well selected CHANEL commercials through years starring famous directors and actors and the other one, the Interactive room, includes a big touch screen table that allows you to play with various CHANEL related videos.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people, mostly Chinese, would visit the place on an ordinary Monday afternoon. It shouldn't though, as it was pretty well promoted, and besides that, Chinese people (at least in big cities), love famous brands, explaining for some of them the curiosity to also discover the story behind. Even if not related, on display at 18 Gallery is a Karl Lagerfeld Photography exhibition, a good way to end a Chanel inspired day.

Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Shanghai) runs until March 14 the "Culture CHANEL" exhibition dedicated to none but the iconic Maison de Chanel.

The entrance fee is only 20 RMB (10 for students) and it's open everyday from 9am to 7pm (Tue-Fri) / 9:30pm (Sat-Mon). The exhibition is accompanied by a website that gives you a nice insight of the showcase: http://culture.chanel.cn/. The show at the Pushkin Museum also had one so if you want to find even more info you can still access it: http://chanel-exposition.ru/. MOCA Shanghai is located inside the People's Park (People's Square Subway station, exit 9) and 18 Gallery can be found at Bund18 - 18 Zhongshan East Road, 4F.