The World’s Outstanding Women (WOW): Coco Chanel

Throughout history women have made their mark in a wide variety of ways.  Each Saturday I plan to highlight one of these remarkable women.  There will be no limit to the areas of history that I may include; however as a guide I will look to the month of their birth, the month of their death or the month associated with their mark in history when I select them.  Is there an outstanding women in history you would like me to include?  I welcome your suggestions.  Would you like to guest blog one of the world’s outstanding women?  Let me hear from you.

Today an outstanding woman from the world of fashion.  Meet Coco Chanel.

 

Coco Chanel

 

There is a lot of information about this icon of fashion.  Narrowing it for my post is going to be difficult.  With her trademark suits and little black dresses, fashion designer Coco Chanel created timeless designs that are still popular today.

Early Life

She was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19 1883 to an unmarried mother, Eugénie Jeanne Devolle who was a laundrywoman, in the charity hospital run by the Sisters of Providence (a poorhouse) in Saumur, France.  Coco had a sister, Julia who was one year older from the same father, Albert Chanel.  Albert was a itinerant street vendor who lived a nomadic life.  His family resided in rundown lodgings and he traveled to and from market towns.  He was persuaded by her family through payment to marry Jeanne in 1884.  Coco’s last name was misspelled, “Chasnel” in the registry at birth due to clerical error.  Eventually the family grew to five children (two boys and 3 girls) and they lived in a crowded one-room lodging in Brive-la-Gaillarde.

In 1895, when Gabrielle was 12, her mother died of bronchitis at the age of 31. Gabrielle’s father sent his two sons out to work as farm laborers and sent his three daughters to the Corrèze, in central France, to the convent of Aubazine, whose religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary, was “founded to care for the poor and rejected, including running homes for abandoned and orphaned girls”.  It was a stark, frugal life, demanding strict discipline. At age eighteen, Chanel, too old to remain at Aubazine, went to live in a boarding house set aside for Catholic girls in the town of Moulins.

Later in life, Chanel retold the story of her childhood somewhat differently, including some more glamorous untruths.  One in particular that stuck was that when her mother died, her father sailed for America to seek his fortune and she was sent to live with two aunts. She also claimed to have been born a decade later than 1883 and that her mother had died when she was much younger than 12.

Her nickname came from another occupation entirely. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called “Coco.” Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a “shortened version of cocotte, the French word for ‘kept woman,” according to an article in The Atlantic.

Pioneer of Fashion

Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris.

Chanel in trousers with Étienne Balsan and Boy Capel

She soon left him for one of his even wealthier friends, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel’s first fashion venture.

Coco Chanel with her bf, Captain Arthur Edward “Boy” Capel.

Opening her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910, Chanel started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes.

Gabrielle Dorziat modelling a Chanel hat, May 1912. Published in Les Modes.

Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them.

“My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville,” she once told author Paul Morand.

hree jersey outfits by Chanel for March 1917

 

In the 1920s, Chanel took her thriving business to new heights. She launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, which was the first to feature a designer’s name. Perfume “is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure,” Chanel once explained.

Coco Chanel 1920

In 1925, she introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time—borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say good-bye to the days of corsets and other confining garments.

Ladies in Chanel Suits

Probably the most famous Chanel suit was worn by Jackie Kennedy.

 

Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for eveningwear.

Audrey Hepburn in the Chanel Little Black Dress

In addition to fashion, Chanel was a popular figure in the Paris literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and for Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée, and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends. For a time, Chanel had a relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky.

Lovelife and Scandal

Another important romance for Chanel began in the 1920s. She met the wealthy duke of Westminster aboard his yacht around 1923, and the two started a decades-long relationship. In response to his marriage proposal, she reportedly said “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!”

Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster und Coco Chanel

The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on her company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led Chanel to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops. During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a German military officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz. After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated by her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel’s behalf.

Coco Chanel Hans Gunther von Dincklage Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage

While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country. Chanel left Paris, spending some years in Switzerland in a sort of exile. She also lived at her country house in Roquebrune for a time.

At the age of 70, Chanel made a triumphant return to the fashion world. She first received scathing reviews from critics, but her feminine and easy-fitting designs soon won over shoppers around the world.

Legacy

In 1969, Chanel’s fascinating life story became the basis for the Broadway musical Coco starring Katharine Hepburn as the legendary designer. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics for the show’s song while Andre Prévin composed the music. Cecil Beaton handled the set and costume design for the production. The show received seven Tony Award nominations, and Beaton won for Best Costume Design and René Auberjonois for Best Featured Actor.

Coco Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. She never married, having once said “I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.” Hundreds crowded together at the Church of the Madeleine to bid farewell to the fashion icon. In tribute, many of the mourners wore Chanel suits.

13 Jan 1971, Paris, France — Original caption: Models from the fashion house of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel attend funeral mass for the famed couturier at Madeleine Church, hear the heart of her clothes and perfume empire. Mlle. Chanel died at her Paris apartment January 10th. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

A little more than a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins at her company to continue the Chanel legacy. Today her namesake company continues to thrive and is believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.

In addition to the longevity of her designs, Chanel’s life story continues to captivate people’s attention. There have been several biographies of the fashion revolutionary, including Chanel and Her World (2005) written by her friend Edmonde Charles-Roux.

In the recent television biopic, Coco Chanel (2008), Shirley MacLaine starred as the famous designer around the time of her 1954 career resurrection. The actress told WWD that she had long been interested in playing Chanel. “What’s wonderful about her is she’s not a straightforward, easy woman to understand.”