"It's important for us to be able to communicate and help Chanel fans to gain a better understanding of what the brand is about through this exhibition," Pavlovsky tells China Daily in an exclusive interview. "Chanel is about history and the capacity of our designers to understand what is happening now, how they link with the past and how they can keep creating in the future."

A vast complex, the West Bund Art Center has a floor space that extends to over 6,000 square meters, larger than any of the previous exhibition venues. The main area of the ground floor is occupied by giant red blocks spelling out the words "Mademoiselle Prive", while three staircases lead up to three "addresses", each representing one of the three pillars of Chanel's creative world.

On the far west side of the exhibition hall is a cinema showing films that demonstrate "the soul of Chanel, instead of the products", Pavlovsky says.