You may know that one of the most popular areas of the Museum is the Reves Collection, housed on our third level in a partial re-creation of the Villa La Pausa, the home of Wendy and Emery Reves in the south of France.
But what you may not know is that La Pausa was formerly owned by the designer Coco Chanel and was originally built for her in 1927. Wendy and Emery Reves bought it in the early fifties, and for almost eighty years the villa welcomed high-profile guests such as the Duke of Westminster, Luchino Visconti, Jean Cocteau, Greta Garbo, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Somerset Maugham, and Graham Sutherland.
In honor of Chanel’s birthday on Friday (she would have been 128), we gathered a few photos to share of Chanel’s life at La Pausa.
Coco Chanel at La Pausa, 1938
Coco Chanel (in front of window) in the dining room at La Pausa, 1938
The La Pausa dining room in the Reves Collection
