GABRIELLE “COCO” CHANEL 1883-1971

GABRIELLE “COCO” CHANEL 1883-1971

Chanel

GABRIELLE “COCO” CHANEL 1883-1971

Recognizing an Original 
Coco Chanel, born Gabrielle Chanel, was the most revolutionary designer of the 1900s from her tumultuous childhood to the history of the little black dress and the knitted suit. Born in Saumur in the Loire Valley on August 19, 1883, Jeanne DeVolle gave birth, in a hospice, to Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel who the world would one day know by the eponymous name of Coco Chanel. Although Chanel is now known as an iconic luxury name, the designer's origins lie in a melancholic and grief-stricken childhood. She experienced the premature death of her mother, abandonment by her father Henri-Albert Chasnel, a professional traveling salesman, and spent years in the care of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Aubazine.
Coco Chanel
There she was surrounded by women dressed only in austere, strictly black and white dresses, and the abbey’s stark architecture, yet ironically, it was here that Gabrielle began to become Chanel: the antithesis of opposing colors and the severity of lines that eventually became the defining characteristic of her designs. At the age of 18, Gabrielle Chanel found herself free to leave Aubazine and begin living her life at the dawn of her youth. She began working as a sales assistant at the Maison Grampayre store in Moulins, while simultaneously working as a singer in a café. One of her signature songs Qui qu’a vu Coco? is where she is said to have gotten her legendary nickname Coco. Moving forward, the cafés of Moulins themselves led to her exposure and meeting with promising fashion executives such as Étienne de Balsan, the son of textile entrepreneurs, who invited her to move into a chateau in Royallieu. After a six-year relationship, Étienne became not only a romantic companion, but also her first financier. While discovering Chanel's exceptional talent for creating hats, women in the immediate vicinity of Balsan's company soon began to notice and take interest in her designs as well.
Her designs quickly became highly sought after, prompting her to move to Paris in 1908 and then to Deauville in 1914 to open her first store. In 1910, Gabrielle Chanel opened her first boutique in Paris, at 21 rue Cambon: a millinery shop with a sign reading “Chanel Modes.” Sought after by the most famous French actresses of the time, the boutique’s designs made Chanel’s name known throughout Paris. Gabrielle was already famous. The simple, elegant style of Chanel’s dresses caused a sensation, and there was no one in the city who didn’t try to imitate her. Shortly after the opening of her first store in 1916, a haute couture showroom opened in Biarritz. Her rapid rise to prominence was due to the contrasting nature of her designs to the popular fashion of the time, which was still closely tied to traditional and slowly obsolete pieces: the corset and the crinoline. Pieces that were now seen as cages in which women locked themselves in the cry of an aesthetic balance and considered increasingly unhealthy. Thus, Chanel, against the current, began to offer sporty silhouettes, with simple and soft lines, in line with what would become the new trend of the beginning of the century. In 1916 Rodier, a French textile industrialist, gave Gabrielle Chanel the exclusive jersey, a fabric that proved to be the best interpreter of Chanel creations given the softness of the body and its innate ability to liberate the physical shape of the woman. The skirt, the sweater and the triptych cardigan thus became the first distinctive model of Chanel fashion, especially made in neutrals such as gray, beige and dark blue, as well as the famous combination of black and white.
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But it was in 1920 that his exclusive dedication to this aesthetic took place.

In that year Chanel opened its first boutique in Paris at 31 Rue de Cambon.

This is the pivotal moment for the success of his career, seeing an exponential growth added and constant thanks to his ambition that has been defined by his relentless desire for more.

In 1921 Chanel introduced her first fragrance, the iconic perfume once perfumer to the Tsars, CHANEL N°5 was the fifth fragrance presented to Mademoiselle Chanel and hence its name. A true timeless classic, CHANEL N°5 remains the absolute symbol of femininity.

The following year, CHANEL N°22 was launched. This floral fragrance, which owes its name to the year of its creation, is the product of the same revolutionary spirit that gave birth to CHANEL N°5 and is characterized by a unique combination of delicacy and audacity.

In 1924, the first makeup line was created, Chanel presented the first makeup collection, with lipsticks and powders. In the same year, the “Société des Parfums Chanel” was founded, dedicated to the creation of unique fragrances and beauty products.

From this same incessant desire to create more, the birth of her first and famous perfume, Chanel No.5, which can only be described as a timeless fragrance that, even today, is considered one of the best ever conceived. Subsequently, other fragrances were created, such as No.22, Gardenia, inspired by the designers' favorite flower and No.19.

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Ever observant, Gabrielle Chanel used her observations of the clothing of Parisian clerks and orderlies, characterized by black suits with white collars and cuffs, to inspire her designs. In the mid-1920s, her analysis evolved into the petite robe noir, or the little black dress with the simplest possible lines, in the hope of making women equal, albeit with immense style. True to her now firm belief that “fashion passes, style remains,” the vision gave way to the absolute success achieved by the Chanel suit, loved by women all over the world: in gabardine, tweed and, of course, jersey.

Having established a substantial and consistent vision with her garments, the designer continued to focus her efforts on accessories. Chanel enlisted the help of Count Etienne de Beaumont and Duke Fulco di Verdura to start an atelier dedicated to costume jewelry creations in which non-precious gems were combined with the purest ones. Extremely rich and almost opulent creations were necessary for the designer, who loved the essentiality of her clothes and tried to balance them perfectly with extravagant accessories.

In February 1955, Gabrielle Chanel launched the iconic quilted 2.55 bag, named after the date of its creation. Combining leather and gold chains, Chanel invented a handle with a new and adaptable style: both resistant and light, it leaves the hands free

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During World War II, Gabrielle Chanel was forced to retire from the fashion scene for a short time, only to return in 1954. Chanel, now aged 71, was seen by critics and colleagues as being on the brink of imminent decline. Yet, in what is now an unsurprising turn of events, Chanel debuted her signature knitted suit, which immediately became another house staple. Early fans of the classic suit included First Lady Jackie Kennedy who was often seen in these designs. Notably, on the day of her husband John F. Kennedy’s assassination, she wore a Chanel suit with a bright pink pointed knit.

On January 10, 1971, Chanel died in her suite at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris at the age of 87. She lived life to the fullest, forever changing international fashion and the concept of dressing the female body. Immediately after her death, the house was led by Gaston Berthelot and Ramon Esparza, assistants to the late designer. Then passing to the creative leadership of Karl Lagerfeld in 1983, an extraordinary designer who demonstrated how to modernise the stylistic codes of the house without ever betraying the vision of Gabrielle Chanel.

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