Beginnings of Coco:
Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in France in 1883. When her mother died of disease when she was at the age of twelve, her father abandoned her and her siblings. She was taken in by nuns at an orphanage where she learned to sew. The nuns’ black and white clothing inspired her designs, especially the “Little Black Dress/ LBD”. Learning to sew was her means of escape. Without the overwhelming tragedies of her childhood, Chanel might never have learned to sew. After she left the orphanage, she decided to begin selling linens but when this failed she began singing, acting and dancing. She adopted the name “Coco” during a brief career as a café and cabaret singer. She met a young businessman, Arthur Milliner who helped her establish a hat shop in Paris in 1910. In this essay I will outline how Coco Chanel paved the way in women’s fashion and her influences which are still an integral part of today’s fashion.
What made Chanel Chanel:
She was rebellious and had the most radical ideas of her time. She completely dismissed the confinements of corsets. She paved the way for other women in the world of fashion which mainly consisted of men dressing women. “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”
Women’s fashion was initially led and dominated by men. Men designed women’s clothing on the basis of the feminine stereotype that was the “ideal woman” who was kept and had to have a near non-existent waist. Women were almost prisoners in their own clothing as they were confined to corsets. Coco promoted freedom and liberation, and the ability to express oneself through fashion and clothing. Some say Coco brought liberation to women through her clothing considering her early life was the opposite of ...
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.... This showed forth in her rebellious, revolutionary and iconic designs. Chanel was the only fashion designer to appear on Time magazine’s list of the most influential people of the 20th Century. From carrying out this Research Topic, I now realise that Chanel is all around me, from my wardrobe to the clothes in stores. Her legacy will never end, her name is permanently stamped onto women’s fashion because she did what no one else ever thought to do. As I read all my sources and carried out all the research needed for this essay, I couldn’t help but wonder about what fashion would be like nowadays if it wasn’t for Chanel. Would women still be confined to the walls of corsets? Would fashion industry still be mainly male dominated? Realistically, Chanel saved women in many ways whether she aimed to do so or not. She truly is the ultimate fashion icon, symbol and idol.
...s far as the author is concern, the fact that CoCo Chanel left the Victorian ideas and lived a life of her own made other women admire her. According to the author, clothing design was her star that raised her above other women. It would be better if other women would emulate her character and moral beliefs that should attract other women.
Werle, Simone. Fashionista A Century of Style Icons. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977. Print.
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”)
In Deauville, she introduced casual knit dresses which was shockingly different from what others were creating and wearing. “She introduced relaxed dressing expressing the aspirations of the 20th century woman, replacing impractical clothing with functional styling.” (Martin 80). Her designs stressed simplicity and comfort and revolutionized the fashion industry. Within five years of her original use of jersey fabric to create a poor girl look, had attracted the attention of influential wealthy women seeking relief from the prevalent corseted style. In 1954, Chanel presented her new collection of the signature suit. The Chanel suit is a standard garment in modern fashion. “The key to her design philosophy was construction, producing traditional classics outliving each season’s new fashion trends and apparel.” (Martin
Working at her father’s clothing shop, she became very knowledgeable about expensive textiles and embellishments, which were captured in her works later in career. She was able to capture the beauty and lavishness of fabrics in portraits of aristocratic women.
Freeman S. (2004). In Style: Femininity and Fashion since the Victorian Era. Journal of Women's History; 16(4): 191–206
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...
The attire of men and women in the eighteenth century cemented the roles they were supposed to play. The style of made dress belied his nature as somewhat more free from restrictions whereas the woman, bound by corsets and strict dress-codes found herself held back in clothing as in society. A sphere of influence, behavior and conduct was assigned to both sexes; each was valued for different qualities. These gender distinctions do not allow any overlap between the two sexes. (Marsden, 21) In light of this, society viewed cross-dressing (the practice of one gender dressing themselves in the attire of the other) as a threat to its own structure. For a woman to forsake the clothes and character of women for that of men sounded monstrous. Such a practice would create sexual ambiguity - a woman would assume the clothes of a man and thus the manner and actions of a man, yet her physical nature denied her that right. Cross-dressing creates monstrations - a woman ceases to be a woman after she has assumed male garb and can never hope to be a man.
Fashion plays an important role in the lives of billions all over the world; people, as part of a status craving society, turn to “fashion capitals” of the world for ways in which to dress and carry themselves. New York, Milan, and Paris are leaders among this fierce industry that the world lusts after. Fashion can speak volumes about ones personality, or also about the condition the world is in at the time. In France, fashion changed rapidly and feverously as the times changed.
They liberated women from tight corsets through her innovative use of tweed and jersey influenced by men’s clothing. Chanel created many timeless designs including the “little black dress,” the classic Chanel suit and Chanel No. 5 perfume. Her designs have forever changed the fashion industry. Coco created a modern, functional, chic look for women which made them feel liberated in their own clothes. Her style is described it as “less is more.”
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.
The story of Coco Chanel's rise from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.
Fashion has been around ever since ancient times, since the time of the Romans, it survived the world wars and is yet today a business with rapid changes. Fashion started off as an art form, a way for the riches to show their social status with unique and innovative designs that only they could afford. It was a way to separate the social classes of the society. In this paper I will include the creator of haute couture, and how the following designers developed couture, as well as having leading names in today’s ready-to-wear industry. The list is long, but I chose to focus on the three most important designers of the modern fashion industry.
Therefore, in an attempt to both show the gravitas of fashion’s impact and justify its mirroring of times and therefore society, a walkthrough of fashion throughout history and its adaptation is exceedingly appropriate. To begin with, Britain’s Industrial Revolution in the 1850s to 1900s came with the introduction of sewing machines and chemical dyes. However, this movement of clothe manufacturing rendered its availability strictly to the opulent. This is a direct relation to the economical situation of the time, showing that people’s expenses were not directed towards the most up to date fashion i.e. luxury products but rather necessities indicating a slowly developing economy. As we move from the 1900s to the mid 1920s, the inception of the First World War influenced the need for more ‘practical’ garments. To illustrate, one of the greatest designers of the century Paul Poiret, designed his garments in a style known as the Directoire. His dresses were simple straight tube sheaths defining simplicity and exemplifying both the political and economic situation of the times justifying the necessity for a free moving design in clothing. Why adopt the notion of simplicity and free moving garments? Women had to leave their traditional domestic roles and become part of the working class or work force and adopt and replace many roles that were normally given to men. Furthermore, the Great Depression in the 1930s comes to play its own role in fashion history further pushing the necessity for a fashion to be translated to accustom a busier lifestyle. This created an economic gap between the rich and the poor. Therefore, fashion in the 1940s in the substantial sense portrayed the necessity for work and socioeconomic background and furthermore encased the economic situation where, as previous times in the 1900s, high-end fashion was restricted to the rich. Following a chronological timeline comes the
On the occasion of the οpening of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent and the publicizing of the Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture archive this October, it is only fair to dedicate this essay to one of the most controversial, most talented and innovative couturiers in the history of fashion, the man that as Pierre Bergé said: “[…]gave power to women.” (Another Magazine 2017) through his garments, through the identity of the style that he created; a style that is, still to this day, fresh, shocking, empowering and mesmerizing. Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent was born on the 1st of August in 1936, just a wear before legendary Elsa Schiaparelli show her groundbreaking ‘Autumn 1937’ Collection, in Oran, Algeria, to a prestigious and