Sam Taylor-Johnson has opened a photography exhibition based on the iconic designer, Coco Chanel

OHMYGOSSIP — ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ director, Sam Taylor-Johnson has opened a photography exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London, which is based on Coco Chanel’s apartment.

Sam Taylor-Johnson has opened a show at London’s Saatchi Gallery, where an exhibition of her photographs of Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment will open on Friday (19.09.14).

Entitled the ‘Second Floor’, Sam’s photography is the result of her and her husband, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s exploration of the late- fashion designer’s apartment in 2010.

Talking to the Telegraph, she explained: “I found it much more fascinating than I expected, so in turn it became a portrait of her through her things. It felt like a completely different way of doing a portrait of someone.

“It was like detective work, really. There was a spiritual side to the woman that I hadn’t known about before.

“Aaron found a motif on one of the screens that looked like the outline of a Chanel no.5 bottle. We were hunting around finding [interlocked] double C’s, trying to unearth where inspirations came from. It became really interesting.”

However, the 47-year-old director almost turned down the offer, because the photography was such a departure from her usual shooting style.

Sam shared: “It was a favour to a friend, Justine Picardie, who was writing a biography of Chanel and asked me to shoot the pictures to accompany the book. I got on the train thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ I’m really not that interested in photographing inanimate objects, and if this is going to be like a World of Interiors shoot, that’s not what I’m good at.'”

She later joked: “The thing with doing something like this is that everyone thinks you’re suddenly an expert on understanding and knowing who Coco Chanel was.”