Chelsea and Westminster

We started the day with a very slow coffee at Partridges (which, despite its extremely slow service has the seal of approval from HM the Queen) on King's Road Chelsea. But our main goal this morning was to see the Mademoiselle Prive (Coco Chanel) exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery on Duke of York Square in Chelsea. "A journey through the origins of Chanel's creations capturing the charismatic personality and irreverent spirit of Mademoiselle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld".

Maxie and I were blown away by this exhibition. It is very contemporary, conceptual and playful - very immersing for us even though we had not "downloaded the app" and seen it in conjunction with our digital devices like we were meant to.

Instead of being displayed on mannequins, these evening dresses were supported by internal light rods to illuminate their exemplary construction.

The room representing Chanel No 5 struck a very witty note....The vast space contained gold lidded vats containing each of the perfume's individual ingredients, such as citrus, rose, jasmine and bergamot, vanilla and sandalwood. As the vats opened, in turn, the room was filled with a wash of scents that together make up No 5. 

The display of the diamond jewellery collection designed by Coco Chanel in 1932 was more traditional (displayed together for the first time here). The diamonds are over 80 years old but they are still worn today by the glitterati including Vanessa Paradis, Julianne Moore and Lily-Rose Depp.  They were displayed in this exhibition on mannequins dressed in a selection of Lagerfeld's beautiful black and (pale) gold evening dresses and trouser suits. They were not behind glass..so the room had almost as many black suited security men talking to each other through the cuffs on their suits as there were excitable gallery goers (mostly female).

 There were fabulous workshops you could do too (but we hadn't booked (sigh!)). While Maxie and I were so deeply engaged Rob and Rod spent some time after their visit in the Saatchi Gardens, watching life pass by on the Duke of York square in this most privileged part of SW London.

We were looking forward to meeting up with Mal and Pat for lunch, giving us a great excuse for this 2015 view of the London Eye from Westminster Bridge as we walked across to our meet up point.

We had a lovely afternoon at Troia, a great Turkish restaurant on Belvedere Road. We found it incredibly easy in the company of Mal and Pat to cover quite a lot of ground in three hours: family, grandchildren, house sales and renos, travel, our time in life, and then again family and grandchildren of course! We wish we could do it more often.

It was rush hour by the time we caught the Underground from Westminster. The trains are very squashed and crowded - but we find everyone is so polite!