Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel was born on August l9th 1883 in the hospital for the poor in the French village of Saumur. It was a misspelling of her name in her birth certificate - "Chasnel" - which helped her erase her poor beginnings once she became famous. When she was 12, Gabrielle’s mother died and her father left her and her sister in a convent and disappeared forever. A friend said much later that Coco was trying to put all the world's women into the uniform she wore then, a black dress with white collar.
At 18, she left the convent and worked in an Au Sans Pareil hosiery shop in Moulins, and that time she first used her nickname “Coco” when she used to sing in a café-concert in Vichy and Moulins. Soon she met Etienne Balsan, a sportsman and horse breeder. His home was a magnet for his numerous hunting friends and their fashionable mistresses. As she started acquiring a foothold in this grand milieu, the young Coco attracted attention, not only for her game courage but also for her striking beauty.
She made and wore small and chic and women admired and asked for copies. Soon, in 1908 Coco Chanel began selling these simply decorated hats from Balsan's ground floor Paris apartment. She met Arthur Capel who helped Chanel to open a small shop on the rue Cambon in Paris in 1910.
Since there was already a couture shop in the building, her lease forbade her to also make couture dresses, but since jersey material was not considered couture dress material and making clothes of jersey would not affect her lease, she started using this material -used only by fishermen before - to make simple navy jersey dresses.
In 1911 and 1912, rich women came to Deauville and Biarritz, the resort towns, for the races. Fashion of that period demanded a woman to be dressed in frills, flounces, huge hats, tight corsets, and long skirts - everything that Chanel hated. Therefore, it was a perfect place to court women with Chanel’s revolutionary clothes.
Chanel was going to be part of a fashion revolution, not just in the radical simplicity of her style but even in the materials she used to achieve it and particularly the accessories she used. Jersey was a flexible silky material which clung to the body, a controversial choice for high fashion. Just as controversial was the length of her hemline, which made a woman's ankles visible. Her suits even before 1920, had above-the-ankle skirts, three-quarter length coats loosely belted to reveal blouses that matched the jacket lining. She cut her hair into a short bob, wore small hats and a suntan, and ensured that she herself was the best advertisement for her style.
During the World War I years Chanel moved into a larger shop on rue Cambon, across from the Ritz hotel. She started selling flannel blazers, straight linen skirts, sailor tops, long jersey sweaters and skirt-jackets. Her simple styles reflected a general wartime sobriety throughout France. Chanel had instinctively grasped the essence of the new epoch, which would crown her as its leader.
During the 1920s, Chanel continued to make evening dresses notable for their exquisite simplicity. Like most couturiers of that period, Chanel designed beaded dresses, and of course, hers were different. Usually constructed in the round (as opposed to being two flat panels stitched together) they were based on the shapes of her other designs and the patterns - if she used them - were geometric, worked in color combinations of black, beige and white, or in striking monochromatic infusions of black or white or red.
Another trademark of Chanel 1920s style was her unorthodox combinations of fabrics: plain and patterned wool jersey in a single outfit or combining patterned floral silks with tweeds. The ever-present Chanel perfectionism was evident in the exquisite co-ordination of different fabrics and prints; a floral-printed silk cut out and appliquéd to the collars and cuffs of a tweed jacket; the matching of a coat lining to the fabric, of the of consistent colors and motifs in buttons, belts and lapel flowers.
Chanel introduced her first costume jewellery in 1924 (a pair of pearl earrings, one black, one white) and she now began to elaborate this vision. Pieces grew in size and became Byzantine, with the use of yellow gold, baroque pearls and rough uncut purposely-flawed gems. Other pieces were collars of enameled leaves and flowers or pearls tied with ribbon bows.
She wore large clunky button-type earrings and strands of beads interlaced with chains of faceted stones. These became her trademark. She favored masses of the stuff, mixing small and large stones, throwing in the occasional semi-precious gem with a pound or two of imitation, piling the whole of it on top of one of her suits and wearing it in broad daylight. The effect was stunning.
Chanel's early-1920s Russian look has been attributed to her liaison with Russian Grand Duke Dmitri. This consisted of tunic shapes and Slavic embroideries and developed out of her other elaborately embroidered, yet simply shaped clothing. This style reflected the general "Russianization" of Paris, which occurred after the Russian Revolution, when the city became home to many people who had fled Russia. Their influence briefly affected Paris fashion.
Chanel's most famous design - instantly recognized in it's hundreds of variations - is the suit in two or three pieces. First made around 1920 it is still popular today. Although Chanel borrowed many details from men's wear, her suits were never imitating men. Usually soft and untailored, made in jersey, velvet, silk charmeuse or tweed, these suits share the practical constants of boxy cardigan jackets with sleeve buttons that really button up, pockets where one needs pockets and straight knee-length skirts with walking pleats.
Chanel disapproved of suits that could be worn only with the jacket closed so she designed jackets that looked good open, closed or draped over a shoulder. She made blouses, which were an integral part of the ensemble, using fabrics matching the suit's lining, printed in corresponding colors.
No less a Chanel trademark is the "little black dress" which she was advocating as the new uniform for afternoon and evening as far back as 1915. Deceptively simple, these dresses were wizardry's of cut and proportion. She used traditional elegant materials lace, tulle, embroideries, and soft weightless silks - in a newly tailored way. Worn with a cardigan of the same fabric as the suit on the next hanger, the little black dress made women wearing anything else seem overdressed. Chanel was accused in invading haute couture with the style of the working girl of creating "deluxe poor look".
She may have been the first couturier to understand one of the most profound changes of the century, the fact that it was not longer fitting or desirable for a woman, in the clothes she wore daily, to create the impression of great wealth. Chanel was the first to sense this and the first to respond with the neat chic of her sweaters, trimmed with crisp white collars, her 'little' knitted suits and here 'little' black dresses. She believed strongly that women should never overdress during the day and a trim tailored suit was fitting for drinks before dinner.
5 was Coco Chanel's lucky number. In 1921 when Earnest Beaux created a new perfume for Gabrielle Chanel, she used her lucky number for Chanel No. 5. Her trademark simplicity was expressed in the shape of the bottle, a design that has never been altered and helps to make it the world's largest selling perfume. Chanel had not simply found the right perfume, but the perfect way to market it. She was the first designer to do so in her own name. She enabled clients who could not perhaps afford her clothes, to share in her aura.
In addition to her fashion work, Chanel designed stage costumes for such playwriters as Jean Cocteau. She scandalised the audience with her bandage-like costumes for his Oedipus Rex in 1937. She used the one element of classical dress most well-known, the ancient practice of wrapping rather than tailoring cloth to fit the body.
With the arrival of the 1930s, Chanel's evening clothes became more elongated, more feminine and by the end of the decade, almost fantastical. For summer evening dresses, she surprised with contrasting scintillating touches like rhinestone straps or silver eyelets. In 1937, struck by how small women looked when seated at the theatre, she showed a collection of head dresses designed to lend height; confections of tulle, silk flowers and the increasingly evident Chanel ribbon bow. Her evening dresses became even more romantic, sometimes strapless, they had full skirts and boned bodices, flounces and ruffles.
A competitive situation developed in the thirties between Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, whom Chanel referred to as "that Italian artist who makes clothes". Schiaparelli's influence was only limited to the one decade but for this short time, she was the more sensational. This did not however force Chanel into trying to do the same thing. Her style was faultlessly elegant, modern and matchlessly chic.
The Chanel style of elegance with a foundation of comfort, ease and practicality, continued throughout the thirties. In 1939 when World War II began, Chanel closed her salon. She did not however leave France but took up residence at the Ritz Hotel. From June 1940, the Nazi High Command had made the Ritz Hotel their headquarters so a rumor spread throughout Paris that Chanel was on more than friendly terms with the Germans. In fact she was in love with a German tennis player turned solder named Nobel von Dinklager. When Paris was liberated in 1945 the French took revenge on women who had collaborated with the Germans, but Chanel managed to escape any retribution by producing a letter from Winston Churchill whom she had know well in the Twenties. However, within a week of the liberation of Paris, she left for Switzerland and she remained there until 1953.
By 1953 Paris had forgotten Chanel. Dior's "new look" had everyone excited in 1947 and there were many new and successful designers in Paris. However, Chanel, goaded primarily by the boredom of retirement and a decline in perfume sales, displayed here usual sense of perfect timing. The impact of the "new look" was waning and the stage was set for a return to elegant chic.
At the age of 71 she prepared her new collection in her old salon on the rue Cambon. Karl Lagerfeld later said " they were abominable, the French press killed her even before they saw the clothes. They were very very mean and not because of the clothes, because the German connection was too near. I liked the collection very much. There was one navy blue suit with a bow tie and a hat leaning back with a bow on the neck, navy blue, like a school teacher, but I think it was the most chic garment in the collection. And the Americans loved it, and her clothes became a craze a short while afterwards."
America sold Chanel, France rejected her, made fun of her, said she was finished, said her suits looked like the thirties, but American buyers saw she was dynamic. Even when she was over 80 she could still pack her salon at rue Cambon. She always said 'fashion fades only style remains the same'
In 1957 she introduced her chain handled quilted leather handbags which have gone on to be so successful.
She died on January 10th 1971 at the age of 88 still in harness, still designing, still working.
Chanel pioneered:
Pantsuits for women
Costume Jewellery
Trousers for women
Patch pockets
Twin sets
Use of jersey
Sequined sheaths
Use of tweed
Sling pump
Short hair
Quilted handbags
Suntan
Pleated skirts
Hair bands
Gilt buttons
Button earrings
Ribbon bows
Braiding and edging
Chain weighted hems
Synthetic perfumes
Matching jacket lining with blouse
Concept of white on black
Multiple strands of necklaces
After her death, Yvonne Dudel, Jean Cazaubon and Philippe Guibourge looked after the house of Chanel. The Chanel suit and the Little Black Dress were sold in their usual vast quantities, and all the Chanel products sold very well, but the sparkle had gone. Chanel needed someone to put life back into the veritable house.
Karl Lagerfeld entered Chanel in 1983. His shock treatment, raising the hemline about 12 inches, using leather and denim, has not changed the Chanel suit itself. It still says the wearer loves the timeless quality and knows her way to the rue Cambon.
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