Gabrielle Chanel was well known mostly by the name of Coco. In the 1920’s she created a revolution in women’s clothing by removing frills and ruffles from common clothing of the time. In the 1950’s she did it again by freeing women from the inflexible cramped fit or corsets. However, even though she made some drastic changes in womens fashion, she managed to maintain elegance in her clothing, while also adding functionality and simpleness.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was born August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France. Chanel was the second illegitimate child born to Jeanne Devolle and Albert Chanel. Often she avoided speaking of her humble beginnings or said that she was raised by her aunts. However, she constantly changed the story depending on the moment. The real truth is, Chanel, her older sister Julia, and her mother, Jeanne, were constantly traveling with Albert. That is, “when the girls were old enough to travel.” (Coco Chanel 27). On November 17, 1884 Chanel’s parents got married. However, Albert neglected to settle down with his family and continued to travel often, this time leaving his wife and daughters behind in Jeanne’s hometown of Courpière. For several years, Albert continued to travel and in 1893 Albert sent a letter to Jeanne saying that he was going to work as a waiter.
Chanel’s mother, who gave birth to three other children, died on February 16, 1895 when Chanel was twelve. Chanel told her friend, Claude Baillèn that her mother had died of tuberculosis. Ann Gaines states, “Jeanne did have asthma, according to Charles-Roux, but the cause of her death was probably simply exhaustion and overwork.” (Coco Chanel 27-28).
During the time of Jeanne’s death Albert was not home. The burial arrangements were made by Albert’s brothe...
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...el’s clothing. Her favorites were his sweaters and jackets.
“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone!” (Coco Chanel, This Week). At the beginning of World War I, many people that populated Deauville left. With the departure of these wealthy tourists, Chanel’s business suffered.
Although Chanel’s multiple businesses had beneficial eras as well as disrupting ones, there is no doubt whatsoever that she revolutionized womens fashion completely. Having altered the conforming attire and in some cases completely changing it she made something out of nothing. Even be looked at as if she were completely wrong, she managed to free women from the uncomfortable corsets and overly sophisticated frills and ruffles. Coco Chanel’s defying mixture of class and comfort still stands strong and elegant after nearly 40 years since her death.
Creator Coco Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in 1883 in the Loire Valley, France. Her mother expired when she was six years old, the youthful Chanel was sent to the orphan house of the Catholic religious community of Aubazine, where she studied the skills of a seamstress. When she turned 18, she left the shelter, and started working for a neighborhood tailor.1 It was during a short stint as an artist in joints and show corridors that Gabrielle embraced the name Coco. World War I directed her to move to the resort town of Deauvile, it was here that she began outlining and making caps as a redirection, which then transformed into a business venture. She was ready to open her own particular millinery shop in Paris in 1910 and she soon had boutiques in both Deauville and Biarritz. By the 1920s, Maison Chanel was secured at 31, rue Cambon in Paris (which remains its headquarters right up 'til the present time) and turn into a style force to be associated with. Chanel turned into a style symbol herself with her striking weave hair styling and tan, setting her at the cutting edge of modern style. Her new accumulation of designs was applauded by the press in Europe, and was a big success in the United States.2
While Doris Goodwin’s mother and father were a very important part of her life growing up her sisters were just as important. She talks about how while Charlotte, her oldest sister was not around as much as her other older sister, Jeanne she was still very important to her. She goes into detail about a shopping trip that was taken with the oldest and youngest siblings and how after the shopping trip to Sa...
Julia Child tried to keep herself occupied in France but couldn’t find anything she loved to do. Finally she decided to take a class at Le Cordon Bleu for cooking. She did not like the treatment she was getting in the women’s only class. ...
During her time in Moulins Chanel met and courted Etienne Balsan, an affluent textile hier. For three years she lived with him at his castle in Compiègne serving as his mistress. There Chanel lived a life of wealth and luxury that would not have been possible without Balsan. Later in her career it was those riches that inspired many of her iconic designs; her times spent on yachts lead her to incorporate those traditionally sailors looks of striped shirts and bell bottoms into her later
The world famous designer and fashion icon Coco Chanel once said “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, and what is happening.” Fashion is something that has evolved multiple times and is also something that has stood the test of time since the very beginning. It’s something that effects society from things like people’s first impressions of what they assume about you to defining your social class from the wealthier to the not so wealthy. Fashion itself is a reflection of social, economic, political and cultural changes. It expresses modernity, symbolizing the spirit of the times. "Fashion is the most powerful art there is. Its movement, design,
Coco Chanel, born Gabrielle Bonhuer Chanel, on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France was an amazing woman who redefined fashion as we know it today. She was a clothing designer who revolutionized the fashion industry with her suits, little black dresses, and avant garde flare. Because of this quickly in her young life she became well know, and rose to be the fashion icon that she is today. From the timeless designs that are still popular to this day, and the sophisticated outfits that can be paired with great accessories Chanel has done it all. When it comes down to it though it was Coco Chanel’s philosophy that “luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it’s not luxury” that lead to her success. (“Coco Chanel”)
Chanel was put to work at the age of 20, working as a seamstress to a French textile heir and racehorse owner. Chanel got the nickname Coco from a song
Women used to dress very conservatively and strict before the turn of the decade. Clothing consisted of fitted dresses, long skirts, and corsets in lady like manners. Since the 1920’s brought women’s rights along, young women decided that they were not willing to waste away their young lives anymore being held down to the rules; they were going to enjoy life. The younger generations of women were breaking away from their old habits and their fashion statements changed their roles in society completely. Women were modeling their lives after popular icons...
Paul Poiret was born on April 20th, 1879 in Paris, France. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion has earned him the title in many people’s eyes as the “King of Fashion”, because he established the principle of modern dress and created the blueprint of the modern fashion industry. Poiret’s designs and ideas led the direction of modern design history. He was born into a working class family and his natural charisma eventually gained him entry into some of the most exclusive ateliers of the Belle Époque. Jacques Doucet, one of the capital’s most prominent couturiers, hired him after seeing promising sketches he had sold to other dressmakers. Furthermore, he was hired by the House of Worth and was put to work to create less glamorous and more practical, simple items because his out of the ordinary designs were not welcomed in open arms by opulent clientele. Despite this experience he was still confident in his ideas and ventured out on his own with money barrowed from his parents and opened a storefront. Moreover, he wanted to promote of the concept of a "total lifestyle” was seen as the first couturier to merge fashion with interior design. His independent work broke the normal conventions of dressmaking, and overturned their underlying presumptions. He liberated the woman’s body from the petticoat and the corset to allow clothing to follow woman’s natural form. Poiret also radically revolutionized dressmaking to switch from the emphasis surrounding the skills of tailoring towards those based on the skills of draping and began to use bright colors. Furthermore, Poiret was apart of the art deco movement, which was surrounded by a period of immense social upheaval, particularly for women, and emergence of technol...
Black appealed to Chanel with its practical nature, her attachment to the colour is said to be related to her moaning the death of her true love Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel. Some people say that her ‘desire to put the world into moaning for him’ led her to create the Little Black Dress. (Edelman 1997 p24).
“Once she began to apply herself, Chanel became a femme d’entreprise forever. Throughout the remainder of her life she would work unremittingly as craftsman and business woman, imposing her personal conception of the art of dressing upon an ever-expanding clientele” (Charles-Roux 6-7). Even though Chanel left the fashion industry during the war and was heavily criticized for it, she was and still is one of the most famous fashion designers (Charles-Roux 7-8). Until her death, Chanel continued working on new designs that were accustomed to her style (“Coco Chanel Biography” par. 20). In 1971, Chanel died at the age of 88. To this day, her house still exists. Chanel is buried in Switzerland with five stone lions surrounding her tomb (Gabrielle par. 1). Because of Chanel’s new bold ideas, the women’s fashion industry has forever been changed (Charles-Roux 6).
6. Hammond, Colleen. "Dressing with Dignity - History of Women's Fashion Industry - How to Fight Sexual Revolution and Immodesty in Dress!" N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Years later on January 20, 1993, Audrey Hepburn passed away after a long battle of colon cancer, leaving two sons, Luca and Sean behind.
Clothing has been around for thousands of years; almost as long as the modern human has. At first, it served the practical purpose of protection from the elements; but, as life for early humans stopped being a constant struggle to survive, they started noticing how they looked and the concept of fashion began to take shape. These first few garments were typically dyed draped cloth that was pinned at the shoulder and/or waist. This was seen in many ancient civilizations around the world, Greek and Roman the most notable. Over time, clothing began to get more and more complex and formed to the body’s shape, eventually leading up to the tailored style we now have today. However, the sophisticated world of Haute Couture; or high fashion, can distinctly trace its roots to Paris during the mid-19th century. Clothing from there was thought to be superior to those from anywhere else, and women began to come from all over Europe just to buy dresses. This was probably due in part to one notable dressm...
As Olivia Singer writes in her article for Another Magazine, “famously, and much to the derision of his contemporaries, it was Yves Saint Laurent who popularised the trouser suit for women”. (Another Magazine, 2017). It is true that a few and daring women, like actress Marlene Dietrich, did wear a man suit, but Saint Laurent went further than dressing a woman into a man’s attire; he created a whole look, an emancipating, audacious and bold equivalent to the little black dress that “was to become the rage in fashion and show business[…], as Marguerite Duras claimed ( Marguerite Duras, Yves Saint Laurent-Icons of Fashion, Icons of Photography, 2014), . ‘Le Smoking’ was not intended to mask the female figure and render a woman into a man; it was the ultimate feminine tool of emancipation, accentuating the sexuality and femininity of the “Femme selon Yves”; the Woman in the eyes of Yves. It is still one of the most celebrated look of power-dressing and has since been shown not only by other couture Houses, but also by High Street