Cocotte - Gabrielle Chanel

Famed fashion designer Coco Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France, although she would later claim that her real date of birth was 1893, making her ten years younger.

Her mother died in 1895, when Gabrielle was six years old, leaving her father, who worked as a peddler with five children. After this dramatic happening, Chanel was sent to the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine with her two sisters, where they spent 6 years.

During this time nuns taught her how to sew—a skill that would lead to her life’s work. She also spent her school vacation in the provincial capital of Moulins where Gabrielle learnt to sew with more flourish than the nuns at the monastery had been able to teach her.

When she turned 18, she left the orphanage.

In the years 1905–1908 she worked as a singer in Moulins i Vichy Coffeehouses under a pseudonym ‘’Coco’’. Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a “shortened version of cocotte, the French word for 'kept woman,'” according to an article in The Atlantic.

Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan, who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him for one of his even wealthier friends, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel’s first fashion venture.

Chanel opened her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910, started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes such as jersey sweaters.

POOR GIRL

Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day, created a ‘’poor girl’’ look which had attracted the attention of influential wealthy women seeking relief from the prevalent corseted styles. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them.

“My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville,” she once told author Paul Morand.

Faithful to her maxim that “luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury,” Chanel’s designs stressed simplicity and comfort and revolutionized the fashion industry.

No5

In the 1920s, Chanel took her thriving business to new heights. She launched her first perfume, with the help of Ernst Beaux, one of the most-talented perfume creators in France. She chose a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents that was more complex and mysterious than the single-scented perfumes then on the market. Chanel No. 5, was the first perfume to feature a designer’s name, also thefirst perfume in a simple and sleek bottle.

The fragrance was in fact also backed by department store owner Théophile Bader and businessmen Pierre and Paul Wertheimer, with Chanel developing a close friendship. A deal was ultimately negotiated where the Wertheimer business would take in 70 percent of Chanel No. 5 profits for producing the perfume at their factories, with Bader receiving 20 percent and Chanel herself only receiving 10 percent. Over the years, with No. 5 being a massive source of revenue, she repeatedly sued to have the terms of the deal renegotiated.

Suit and little black

In 1925, she introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time—borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say goodbye to the days of corsets and other confining garments.

Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for evening wear.

Lovelife

In the 1920s Chanel had two important relationship, one with composer Igor Stravinsky and another

with wealthy duke of Westminster- Hugh Grosvenory. Gabrielle and Hugh started a decades-long romance but in response to his marriage proposal, she reportedly said “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!”

Crisis

The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on her company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led Chanel to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops.

During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a German military officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz. After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel’s behalf.

While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country. Chanel left Paris, spending some years in Switzerland in a sort of exile. She also lived at her country house in Roquebrune for a time.

However, she ended this self-imposed exile in 1954, returning to Paris when she took on Christian Dior's overtly feminine New Look. She expanded the signature style with the introduction of pea jackets and bell-bottoms for women. Her new collection, panned by the press in Europe, was a hit in the United States.

Hollywood stars including Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly fell in love with her effortlessly stylish boxy cardigan suits.

Legacy

Coco Chanel worked until her death in 1971 at the age of 88, spending her last moments in the style she had become accustomed to at her opulent private apartment in The Ritz.

Hundreds crowded together at the Church of the Madeleine to bid farewell to the fashion icon. In tribute, many of the mourners wore Chanel suits.

After her death in 1971, Chanel’s couture house was led by a series of different designers. This situation stabilized in 1983 when Karl Lagerfeld became chief designer

Inspiration

In 1969, Chanel’s fascinating life story became the basis for the Broadway musical Coco, starring Katharine Hepburn as the legendary designer. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics for the show’s song while Andre Prévin composed the music. Cecil Beaton handled the set and costume design for the production. The show received seven Tony Award nominations, and Beaton won for Best Costume Design and René Auberjonois for Best Featured Actor.

In addition to the longevity of her designs, Chanel’s life story continues to captivate people’s attention. There have been several biographies of the fashion revolutionary, including ‘’Chanel and Her World’’ (2005), written by her friend Edmonde Charles-Roux, ‘’Coco Chanel’’ (2008), where Shirley MacLaine played the famous designer around the time of her 1954 career resurrection.

Interesting facts

- By the late 1920s the Chanel industries were reportedly worth millions and employed more than 2,000 people, not only in her couture house but also in a perfume laboratory, a textile mill, and a jewelry workshop.

- Today her namesake company is held privately by the Wertheimer family and continues to thrive, believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.

- She never get married, having once said “I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.”

The first film about Chanel was 'Chanel Solitaire' in 1981, with Marie-France Pisier playing the designer.

- In addition to fashion, Chanel was a popular figure in Parisian literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée, and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends.

Gabrielle ''Coco'' Chanel... Incredible woman! Strong, brave but also petit and elegant.

Starting from a poor, orphaned girl, achieving success, reborn after the crisis, Chanel began to be motivation for millions of people.

Inspiration for many generations. Inspiration for me.

And here are, of course, a few of her unforgettable quotes

“There are people who have money and people who are rich.”

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.''

“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”

“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

“Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve.”

“The best things in life are free. The second-best are very expensive.”

“A woman with good shoes is never ugly.”

“Fashion changes, but style endures.”

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”

'' I decided who I wanted to be and this is who I am''

J...L

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