logo search
English

Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur ‘Coco’ Chanel (August 19, 1883 – January 10, 1971) was a pioneering French couturier whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her arguably the most important figure in the history of 20th century fashion design.

Chanel herself mentioned constantly improved versions of her childhood. However, it seems certain that she was born as the second illegitimate daughter to the travelling salesman Albert Chanel and his lover Jeanne Devolle in the small city of Saumur, France. On 16 February 1895, when Gabrielle was 11 years old, her mother died; her father abandoned them a short time later. The young Gabrielle spent 7 years in the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she learned the trade of a seamstress. After affairs with generous wealthy men – a military officer and later an English industrialist – she was able to open a shop in Paris in 1910 selling ladies' hats, and within a year moved the business to the fashionable Rue Cambon. Her influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

The influential Chanel suit, launched in 1923, was an elegant suit comprising a knee-length skirt and trim, boxy jacket, traditionally made of woven wool with black trim and gold buttons and worn with large costume-pearl necklaces. Coco Chanel also popularized the little black dress, whose blank-slate versatility allowed it to be worn for day and evening, depending on how it was accessorized. Although unassuming black dresses existed before Chanel, the ones she designed were considered the haute couture standard. In 1923, she told ‘Harper's Bazaar’ that ‘simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.’

She never married. For more than 30 years, Gabrielle Chanel made the Hôtel Ritz in Paris her home, even during the Nazi occupation of Paris. The House of Chanel in Paris, under Karl Lagerfeld, remains one of the top design houses today.

Quotes