Coco Chanel, a French fashion designer, created a composition of the iconic perfume called Chanel No. 5 that set Coco financially for the rest of her life. However, great genius and ambition did not allow me to be content with the success so far. Chanel entered a woman's wardrobe, radically changing the approach to what should be worn by a woman ...
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France, as one of the three daughters of a rural, poor trader Albert Chanel. After the death of Gabrielle's mother, Albert placed his daughters in the care of a monastic orphanage. Thanks to the nuns, Gabrielle mastered the art of sewing, and then gained tailoring experience under the supervision of her aunt, who took care of Coco. Before becoming rich and influential, she had earned some extra money as a singer in inferior houses and a kept man for men. After turning thirty, she started working as a fashionista.
Going against the flow
Coco went against the tide from the beginning. She was the first to design knitted garments, disenchanting this material as suitable only for work clothes. It was also caused by problems related to the limited access to fabrics during the World War I, which was going on at that time. Chanel even though she was a slim and shapely woman, she liked the broad style and non-binding movements . And it was just such clothes that she designed. She created a new style of women - self-confident, independent, who like comfort and do not care about the whims of men.
Coco Chanel - French fashion designer and popularizer of a comfortable female outfit inspired by men's clothing
Gabrielle Chanel has also created the timeless little black dress that influential magazine "Vogue" has dubbed "a Ford by Chanel." Obviously, this was a reference to the Ford T, a car produced only in black and within the reach of many Americans.
Coco, despite having a considerable collection of jewelry that she had received from her admirers over the years, refused to wear pearls in public because they attracted too much attention of passers-by on the street. She came up with an idea and popularized the wearing of artificial jewelry, which, thanks to its low price, was within the reach of every woman.
Gabrielle Chanel and Winston Churchill on the hunt. Coco dressed in a comfortable and warm outfit
The combination of these two inexpensive items:knitted clothes and artificial jewelry meant that a woman did not need to have a wealthy wallet to feel good and dress fashionably. Thus opposing "vain ostentation".
Chanel No. 5 and an affair with a prince
The turn of 1921 and 1922 was very significant for Chanel. Then she created a perfume composition, still iconic today, called Chanel No. 5 that set Coco financially for the rest of her life. Money gave her independence, also in choosing her lover . One of them was an English prince.
Coco Chanel in comfortable pants and a Mariniere style blouse
The romance between Gabrielle Chanel and Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, was turbulent and interesting. Coco was a model of femininity at the time, and Hugh an ideal of a kind of playboy. Chanel worked constantly, tending her Parisian fashion house all the time, and Grosvenor expected that the future duchess would be constantly at his side. Hugh showered Coco with luxurious gifts at every turn, and she gave him back his checkbook without ever using it.
Pants rule!
The prince's lifestyle and leisure activities by Grosvenor, incl. sailing and hunting had a clear influence on the direction of the designed Chanel costumes. Hugh was taking Coco on cruises on his yacht, convincing Chanel that the acceptable colors at sea were white and navy blue.
This is how Coco hats were created, resembling the caps of sailors serving a prince's boat, and horizontal, alternating white and navy blue stripes appeared in the Chanel Mariniere collection. She also drew inspiration from traditional costumes that she had the opportunity to put on:a jacket while hunting, a grooms sweater, a boatswain during sea adventures. From these clothes she drew three important features into her collection - comfort, practicality and the need for warmth.
During the aforementioned sea escapades, horse racing or hunting, she discovered that skirts were impractical, so she decided to introduce women's trousers to her collections. Although Chanel was not the first to put on the pants, she is still a well-known and respected personality in the world. fashion, had a huge impact on the popularization of trousers, sweaters and jackets among women .
Inspirational masculine style
Gabrielle Chanel is considered the most brilliant revolutionary who skillfully drew elements from the male world of fashion. The new style from Coco was characterized by a simple cut, taking into account the waist cut, so that it would not restrict movement too much. Her work was in line with the emancipation of women started in the 19th century and the social changes that continue to this day, aimed at fighting for gender equality.
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Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on the book:
- P. Bociąga, Impeccable. Biography of the male image, Agora 2019