The Influence of Coco Chanel

by L.G. and J.C.

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was one of the most influential women in fashion of this century. She grew up practically an orphan and became famous, rich, and an extraordinary designer. Her success was an accomplishment due to hard work and a striving need for fame. In the process, she set her own sense of style, flair, and influenced the style women followed.

Gabrielle Chanel was born in Saumur, France in 1883.(worldmedia. fr/fashion/) Gabrielle (Coco was a nickname that came later on) Chanel described her childhood somewhat differently than others remembered it. As Madsen (3) better states it, she made up things. She claimed she was an only child, even though her mother Jeanne Devolle gave birth to four more children. Gabrielle and her older sister Julie were the illegitimate daughters of Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle. They married after Gabrielle's birth. After they were married, they managed to have three more children, Alphonse, Antoinette, and Lucien. In February 1895, Jeanne's health finally gave out. She was found dead at the age of thirty-two.

The remaining part of Gabrielle's childhood was spent in an orphanage. Her relatives were unable to take Gabrielle and her four brothers and sisters in. When Gabrielle and Julie were home for the holidays, they were spent with Henri Adrien and Virginie, the girls' grandparents on their mother's side. This is where Gabrielle first met her aunt Adrienne, her mothers younger sister. They were the same age and the best of friends. They were so close people often mistook them for sisters.

Gabrielle never spoke about her life at Aubazine, the orphanage at which she and her sisters were placed. When asked about this part of her childhood, Gabrielle would simply say that she lived with many aunts that she insisted did not like her. In a later quote Gabrielle stated:

I've been ungrateful toward the odious aunts. I owe them everything. A child in revolt becomes a person with armor and strength. It's the kisses caresses, teachers, and vitamins that kill children and turn them into unhappy or sickly adults. It's the mean and the nasty aunts who create whinners, and give them inferiority complexes, although in my case the result was a superiority complex. Under nastiness looms strength, under pride a taste for success and a passion for grandeur (Madsen 3) .

When Gabrielle was too old to return to Aubazine, she and Julie were placed in a boarding school in Moulins, France. When Gabrielle was twenty, she joined Adrienne as a shop assistant who worked in a small but busy boutique named The House of Grampayne.

The summer she turned twenty-one, Gabrielle moved into her own apartment in Moulins. Adrienne joined Gabrielle. That summer Gabrielle and Adrienne began dating lieutenants who happened to need last minute alterations on the day that Gabrielle was working in the shop. The lieutenants took them to La Rotonde, a famous opera house. No one knows if it was the persuasion of the lieutenants or the essence of Gabrielle, but the director of La Rotonde hired her as a singer. One of the songs Gabrielle sang was about a lady who lost her dog named " Coco." It was from this that Gabrielle gained her famous nickname; Gabrielle became "Coco".

Coco had just turned twenty-five in August, 1908. That summer Coco took a trip to the Pyrenees. It was here that Coco met her first love Arthur Capel, better known as"Boy". During their love affair, Coco reportedly told Boy, "I'll know that I love you when I don't need you anymore," (Madsen 57) . She found women who were dependent on men quite boring.

During the summer of 1913, Boy and Coco were in Deauvill, an English channel resort. Coco opened a shop in the main stream where she sold her designs, including turtleneck sweaters and hats. This shop was paid for with Boy's money.

Coco's boutique was located between the Normandy Hotel, the casino, and the beach. Coco added a white awning on which she put "Gabrielle Chanel." Coco filled her store with her designs. Her clothes were loose, casual, and in darker shades. She loved long skirts with sparce jewelry. Women loved it. Coco was on her way.

Coco revolutionized the fashion world. Everyone loved her. Coco became very slender and long, so therefore all her clients lost weight to look like Coco. Coco cut off all her long hair, so she in turn looked like a young boy. Her clients adored it. Many of Coco's dresses, fitted for slimness, were long, with dropped waistlines.

On July 15, 1915, Coco opened a fashion house in Biarritz. Coco now had three shops in Rue Cambon, Paris, and Biarritz. Coco was completely in charge of the material that they used and the designs they made.

As Krebs stated, her first fabrics included wool jersey, which was comfortable and easy fitting, but which had been not considered suitable for fashionable clothes. Many of Coco's accessories included multiple strands of pearls, quilted handbags, slingback ivory pumps with black toes and of course, her combination of jewels with sportswear.

During the roaring twenties , Chanel fashions were more popular than ever. They made a statement; they said, "Look, I'm young and pretty." It was around this time that waists dropped and skirts became shorter in the early 1920's . Then Chanel introduced the " little black dress." (http://www.Missouri.edu/~c6764532chanel12.html) The Chanel style is synonymous for the classic knit and cardigan ensemble , and the "little black dress" firmly established as the basis for each new collection. (A HREF="http://www.glitter.com/designers/coco chanel/index.html">http://www.glitter.com/designers/coco chanel/index.html Lynda Stretton)

Coco believed that all body movement began in the back, and that everything is in the shoulders. Coco catered to women of all body types, slim or heavy. She made her clothes so that women could cross their arms, play golf or even bend over to tie their shoes. As Chanel noted :

Why am I so determined to put the shoulder where it belongs? Women have very round shoulders that push forward slightly; this touches me and I say: 'one must not hide that',then someone tells you: the shoulder is on the back. I've never seen women with shoulders on their backs. (Cyber Nation International,Inc. "Great Quotations by Coco Chanel to Inspire and Motivate you to Achieve," (1998),http://www.Cyber Nation. com/victory/quotations/authors/quotes Chanel Coco.html 28 Sept.1998.)

To further her fame, Coco brought out her signature perfume , Chanel No.5 . Coco's perfume was unique. Previously no one had dared to create a perfume that had a smell other than floral , but Coco changed that. Chanel No. 5 was a more musky, manly scent.

At the start of World War II, Coco's company began to falter. She was losing money. Coco dealt with the war by closing down her fashion business. To make matters worse, she began dating a Nazi Officer, Hans Gunther Von Dincklage. This relationship didn't help with her ever falling fashion world and the loyalty she depended on from her clients.

In 1939, Coco closed her shop. Coco felt more and more alone and in the end she gave up all rights to her perfume company. She ended up selling to the Wertheimer brothers who still own the company today.

In 1954, Coco launched a successful comeback (Sischy 1) . She was supposedly prompted by two motives: first, the sales of her perfume were falling off, and her financial advisors were of the opinion that a successful re-opening of her Salons de Couture would give the perfume sales a boost. The second and probably more telling motive was that the fashions in favor in 1954 were very similar indeed to those she had so successfully knocked for six years at the outset of her career. (Lynam127).

Coco announced on February 5, 1954, that she was to have a show of her first collection since the war. The night of the show Coco did not appear before her friends; she had watched the mannequins parade from the top of her staircase where she could see without being seen (Galante 210). She did this because she was afraid the people would not accept her.

Coco at the age 71 she reopened her shop in Paris. She had come up with a new suit, the collarless, braid-trimmed suits in jersey and tweed. Though she had despised all jewelry in her younger days, she now loaded down her suits with bracelets and strands of pearls.

Americans couldn't buy her suits fast enough. Six months later, after the reopening of her shop at the "Next Collection ," they perceived that America yearned for nothing so much as to rediscover the woman whom a public of connoisseurs was already familiarly addressing as "Coco". (Roux 367)

Coco died in Paris of natural causes on January 10 , 1971. After her death Karl Lagarfeld obtained rights to design for the House of Chanel. Today Lagarfeld still shows for Chanel.

And still , to this day women all over the world are purchasing the "little black dress" and the tweed suits which Coco made famous. Her styles impacted feminine attire throughout her career and after her death . Her fashion still lives on even though she may not.

WORK CITED

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