Coco Chanel

“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. Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was a legendary fashion designer famous worldwide for her revolutionary designs. Her career especially thrilled during the 1920s and 1930s. She was born on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, located in the Loire Valley of France. Her unmarried mother worked there. However, Chanel as an adult claimed that she was born in Auvergne as an attempt to hide her rough childhood. She also said that she was born in 1893, making her ten years younger than she really was.

In contrast to her later years of triumph, Coco Chanel endured an impoverished childhood. Her mother passed away in February 16th, 1895 due to exhaustion and overwork at age 33. Her father, named Albert, was left with Chanel and her four siblings. Her father was a peddler, whose job was to travel from place to place and sell small goods. He did not have enough income to care for all five of his children, so he “farmed out” the kids to his relatives and orphanages right after Chanel’s mother died. He sent Chanel, a young child of age 12, to an orphanage belonging to a Catholic monastery in Aubazine.

There, she, now an orphan, lived with the sisters of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary and learned the trade of a seamstress. She received strict convent education from the nuns. As for vacations, she went to the provincial capital of Moulins to meet her relatives. She further developed her skills of sewing. She was given no formal education, but working as a dressmaker in the convent provided a strong basis that led to her future career as a designer.

At the age of 18, she left ...

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...e again. She was buried at the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Although Coco Chanel’s astronomical career ended on that day, her legacy continues on, and the Chanel brand remains as one of the most recognizable names in world fashion today.

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