Sofia Coppola Invites You Inside Chanel’s Most Iconic Address

Push open the doors of 31 rue Cambon in Paris, and the world outside suddenly feels very far away. The storied townhouse has been the beating heart of Chanel Haute Couture since 1918, when Gabrielle Chanel, better known as “Coco,” moved her atelier from the glam seaside town of Biarritz to the very center of the City of Light. Over a century later, its mirrored staircase still catches the light the way it once caught Coco’s eye—and the rooms still hum with the same creativity as the current-day design site for Chanel’s team of fait-main specialists.

Sofia Coppola remembers the her first time climbing those mirrored stairs as a nervous intern. She was 15 years old, braces gleaming, nervously tugging at a navy knit skirt her mom had purchased just for the occasion. She details her arrival at the famed atelier in the new book, Chanel Haute Couture, published under “Important Flowers” by Coppola, a MACK books imprint, which brings to the realm of book publishing the unique voice of the film director, writer, and producer.

Coppola details the brass plaque reading Mademoiselle Privé glinting as she walked by; inside, Karl Lagerfeld sketched, music floated in the background, and models like Victoria Webb and Marpessa Hennink swanned by in clouds of chiffon looking impossibly chic (and trop épuisée from their previous night out). The smell of fabric, perfume, and possibility permeated the air. For Coppola, it was pure magic.

That magic hasn’t gone anywhere. Climb the staircase today and you’ll still pass the couture salon, Coco’s apartment, and finally the ateliers, where 150 artisans are busy turning fabric, feathers, and beads into the kind of pieces that make fashion lovers swoon.

For those of us who can’t spend our afternoons wandering the mirrored halls of rue Cambon, there’s this book—a 450-page journey through the story of Chanel Haute Couture. Inside are rarely seen sketches, intimate photographs of clients in their Chanel creations, runway images, and archival treasures that trace the evolution of Chanel from its naissance.

Decades after Coco’s reign, Karl Lagerfeld would ascend those very same stairs, transforming Chanel into not just a fashion house, but a worldly, cultural force, weaving modernity into its codes from 1983 until his passing in 2019. After him, Virginie Viard, Lagerfeld’s closest collaborator and custodian of the house’s soul, guided Chanel through a very new chapter until 2024, adding her own quiet poetry, soft romanticism, and many many bolts of tweed to the house’s ongoing story.

Spanning the years of leadership from Gabrielle Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, and Virginie Viard, the book also captures their teams, muses, and the models who brought their collections to life. Each image in the book was shot by some of the world’s most renowned photographers—a guide to the extraordinary creations that shaped generations of designers, and a piece of fashion history in its own right. Below, a further look into Chanel Haute Couture—consider it the next best thing to climbing those mirrored stairs yourself.