The Australian Ballet inks patronage deal with Chanel
As its ‘living heritage partner’, the iconic French fashion house will sponsor a new archival system for the ballet.
A 60th anniversary won’t be the only celebration the Australian Ballet has on its horizon. The national ballet organisation has announced a historic partnership with the fashion house of Chanel, which will see the French fashion brand named an official patron and ‘living heritage partner’ of the ballet company, which is the most prestigious in the country.
Announced on November 18, the alliance will see Chanel sponsor the creation of an internal digital asset management (DAM) system for the ballet’s archives. Protecting and preserving its storeyed history is a priority for the Academy, and the system is set to “house all past, current and future audiovisual history, including archiving of performances, costumes, sets and lighting design.”
According to a statement released by the House of Chanel and the Australian Ballet, the archival management system will also offer the most effective means of storage, proper cataloguing and retrieval of digitised assets, which now span six decades of performances.
Chanel has a long relationship with classical ballet. Stretching back to 1920 with the Ballets Russes’s revival of ‘The Rite of Spring’, which was the first ballet the House’s founder Gabrielle Chanel became a patron of. She also designed costumes for numerous ballets, a tradition that Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of Chanel from 1983 to 2019, when he passed away, was passionate about preserving.
In 2009, Lagerfeld created Elena Glurjidze’s outfit for ‘The Dying Swan’, as part of the English National Ballet’s Ballets Russes season and in 2018, he made the costumes for the pas de deux for ‘Bolero’, which was an extract from ‘Decadance’ by the Israeli dancer and choreographer Ohad Naharin.
For the Australian Ballet to receive the support of Chanel — which, up until now, has tended to partner with ballet companies closer to its European home — is big news for the local industry. It situates the ballet company, which is based between the Sydney Opera House and the Arts Centre in Melbourne, among the most culturally relevant academies in the world. Arriving on the heels of a year without live performances — due to the coronavirus, the Australian Ballet had to shift its 2020 program online — and this news is a dose of good news the ballet community deserves.
“Chanel’s patronage of The Australian Ballet is a new initiative reinforcing the House’s support of achievement, innovation and excellence in the arts,” said the brand in a statement. Though recently announced, the brand also revealed the partnership started “earlier this year”. It’s due to conclude in 2022, the year the ballet will celebrate its 60th year.
And while it’s not yet clear whether any Chanel-designed costumes will be involved, Virginie Viard, the current Artistic Director of the House’s Fashion collections, has ‘reimagined’ costumes for the Serge Lifar ballet ‘Variations’ in the past, so the possibility hasn’t been ruled out.