COCO CHANEL

GABRIELLE BONHEUR COCO CHANEL

Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.

AUGUST 19, 1883 JANUARY 10, 1971

Gabrielle "Coco" Bonheur Chanel was a French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand. She was the only fashion designer to appear on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.A prolific fashion creator, Chanel's influence extended beyond couture clothing. Her design aesthetic was realized in jewelry, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product.

Chanel was known for her lifelong determination, ambition and energy which she applied to her professional and social life. She achieved both success as a businesswoman and social prominence thanks to the connections she made through her work. These included many artists and craftspeople to whom she became a patron. However, Chanel's highly competitive, opportunistic personality led her to make questionable life choices which have generated controversy around her reputation.

LEGACY AS DESIGNER
As early as 1915, Harper's Bazaar raved over Chanel's designs: "The woman who hasn't at least one Chanel is hopelessly out of fashion This season the name Chanel is on the lips of every buyer." Chanel's ascendancy was the official deathblow to the corseted female silhouette. The frills, fuss, and constraints endured by earlier generations of women were now pass; under her influencegone were the "aigrettes, long hair, hobble skirts. Chanel's philosophy was to emphasize understated elegance through her clothing. Her popularity thrived in the 1920s, because of innovative designs. Chanel's own look itself was as different and new as her creations. Instead of the usual pale-skinned, long-haired and full-bodied women preferred at the time, Chanel had a boyish figure, short cropped hair, and tanned skin. She had a distinct type of beauty that the world came to embrace.

THE CAMELLIA
The camellia had an established association with Alexandre Dumas's literary work, "La Dame aux Camlias" (''The Lady of the Camellias"). Its heroine and her story had resonated for Chanel since her youth. The flower itself had become identified with the courtesan who would wear a camellia to advertise her availability. The camellia came to be identified with The House of Chanel, making its first appearance as a decorative element on a white-trimmed black suit in 1933.

THE "LITTLE BLACK DRESS"

The concept of the "little black dress" is often cited as a Chanel contribution to the fashion lexicon and as an article of clothing survives to this day. Its first incarnation was executed in thin silk, crpe de chine, and had long sleeves. In 1926, the American edition of Vogue highlighted such a Chanel dress, dubbing it the garonne (little boy look).Vogue editors predicted it would "become sort of a uniform for all women of taste", embodying a standardized aesthetic, which the magazine likened to the democratic appeal of the ubiquitous black Ford automobile. This look, a spare sheath, generated widespread criticism from male journalists who complained: "no more bosom, no more stomach, no more rumpFeminine fashion of this moment in the 20th century will be baptized lop off everything."

JEWELRY

In 1933, designer Paul Iribe collaborated with Chanel in the creation of extravagant jewelry pieces commissioned by the International Guild of Diamond Merchants. The collection, executed exclusively in diamonds and platinum, was exhibited for public viewing and drew a large audience; some three thousand attendees were recorded in a one-month period.

THE CHANEL BAG

Identifying a need to liberate women's hands from the encumbrance of a hand held bag, Chanel conceived of a handbag that would accomplish this stylishly. Christened the "2.55" (named after the date of the bag's creation: February 1955), its design, as with much of her creative inspiration, was informed by her convent days and her love of the sporting world. The original version was constructed of jersey or leather, the outside featuring a handstitched quilted design influenced by the jackets worn by jockeys. The chain strap was a nod to her orphanage years, reminiscent to Chanel of the abbey caretakers who wore such waist chains to hold keys. The burgundy red uniform worn by the convent girls was transmuted into the bag's interior lining.

 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.
Coco Chanel