Full name: Gabrielle
Bonheur “Coco” Chanel
Birth: August 19, 1883
Place of
Birth: Saumur,
France
Death: January
10, 1971
Place of
Death: Paris,
France
Coco was born in the workhouse
in the Loire Valley where her unmarried mother worked, although she asserted
that she was born in Auvergne. Her mother died when she was six years old, and the
young Chanel was sent to the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine,
where she learned the trade of a seamstress.
Her abilities as a seamstress
improved during her vacations with her relatives in the provincial capital of
Moulins. It was during a brief stint as a singer in cafes and concert halls
that Gabrielle adopted the name Coco, a nickname given to her by local soldiers
who went to watch her.
World War I led her to move to
the resort town of Deauvile, where Chanel became the mistress of a rich
ex-military officer and textile heir Etienne Balsan in 1908. At the age of 23,
she became his mistress and moved into his chateau, where she lived for three
years. It was here that she started designing and creating hats as a diversion,
which then turned into a commercial venture.
She then started a relationship
with a wealthy English Industrialist called Arthur Edward 'Boy' Capel who was a
friend of Balsan. The relationship lasted nine years and in 1919, the single
most devastating event of her life occurred when Capel was killed in a car
accident. She commissioned a roadside memorial at the site of the accident.
During the 1920s, Coco Chanel
became the first designer to create loose women's jersey, traditionally used
for men's underwear, creating a relaxed style for women ignoring the stiff
corseted look of the time. They soon became very popular with clients, a
post-war generation of women for whom the corseted restricted clothing seemed
old-fashioned and impractical. Coco Chanel's bobbed hair, bright red lips and outspoken manner also broke
the mould. This smoking, outspoken woman never married -although she had
relations with the English industrialist Arthur "Boy" Capel - who
lent her the money to buy Rue Cambon - Igor Stravinsky and the second Duke of
Westminster Hugh "Bendor" Grosvenor, the richest man in Europe.
In 1922, she launched the
fragrance Chanel No. 5 and Pierre Wertheimer became her business partner, and
reputedly her lover.
During World War II, Chanel was
a nurse, although her post-war popularity was greatly diminished by her affair
with a Nazi officer during the conflict and she moved to Switzerland to escape
the controversy.
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.
“Fashion fades, only style remains the same."
"Fashion has become a joke.
The designers have forgotten that there are women inside the dresses. Most
women dress for men and want to be admired. But they must also be able to move,
to get into a car without bursting their seams! Clothes must have a natural
shape."
