10 questions · Society & Everyday
Gabrielle Chanel is born in 1883 into poverty; after her mother's death she grows up in an orphanage, where nuns teach her to sew. The strict black-and-white habits and the plain arches of the convent architecture would later resurface in her fashion. As a young woman she sings in cabarets: it is there, so the story goes, that she is given the nickname "Coco". With the backing of wealthy lovers she first opens a hat shop, then fashion boutiques in Deauville and Paris. Her idea is radical: she frees the female body from the corset and designs comfortable, clean-lined clothes: often from jersey, a cheap fabric until then used only for underwear. Before long she defines a wholly new look of simple, sporty elegance. In 1921 she launches her perfume "Chanel Nº 5": one of the first perfumes to bear a designer's name and still one of the most famous in the world. Marilyn Monroe made it immortal with the line that at night she wore only "a few drops of Nº 5". Equally legendary is the "little black dress": Chanel turned black, until then reserved for mourning, into the epitome of understated elegance. Her life had darker chapters too: during the German occupation of Paris she had a relationship with a Nazi officer, which draws criticism to this day. After the war she withdrew at first, but staged a comeback in the 1950s and worked until her death in 1971. Her fashion house Chanel endures today, with its famous double-C as the emblem of a woman who built, from nothing, one of the most influential empires in the history of fashion.
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fashion / fashion designer
She founded the fashion house Chanel, which still exists today.
💡 Did you know? Chanel turned a small hat shop into a global empire and shaped 20th-century fashion like almost no one else.
Chanel Nº 5
It was one of the first perfumes to bear a designer's name.
💡 Did you know? Marilyn Monroe said that at night she wore only "a few drops of Nº 5".
the little black dress
She turned black, until then reserved for mourning, into a symbol of understated elegance.
💡 Did you know? The „little black dress“ turned black, until then the colour of mourning, into the essence of timeless elegance.
freeing women from the corset
Chanel freed women from the tight corset and designed comfortable, simple clothes from fabrics like jersey.
💡 Did you know? She often used jersey for it: a cheap fabric previously used only for underwear.
Gabrielle
She probably picked up the nickname "Coco" during her time as a cabaret singer.
💡 Did you know? Gabrielle Chanel supposedly got the nickname „Coco“ during her brief time as a cabaret singer.
poor, raised in an orphanage
After her mother's death Chanel grew up in an orphanage run by nuns: where she learned to sew.
💡 Did you know? There she learned to sew from nuns: the plain black-and-white habits later shaped her style.
the double-C
It stands for her name, Coco Chanel, and is one of the best-known fashion logos in the world.
💡 Did you know? Chanel designed the interlocking CC monogram herself; it has been in use since the 1920s.
relationship with a Nazi officer
After the war she withdrew for a time, but made a comeback in the 1950s.
💡 Did you know? During the German occupation Chanel lived in the Paris Ritz and had a relationship with a Nazi officer: a chapter still controversial today.
Foto: Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel (1883 to 1971) was a French fashion designer who revolutionised women's clothing with simple elegance and the „little black dress.“
💡 Did you know? Of her perfume „Chanel No 5“ Marilyn Monroe said she wore „only a few drops“ of it in bed; the best advertising it ever had.
1883
Born: 19 August 1883 in Saumur, France
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