Coco Chanel - biography and personal life. The famous Coco Chanel - a loving woman, a purposeful businessman and a creative person Coco Chanel years
The biography of Coco Chanel (real name Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel) began on August 19, 1883 in the French city of Saumur, located in the Maine-et-Loire department, on the right bank of the Loire River. Gabrielle was the second daughter of the traveling salesman Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolue. Since Koko's family was not rich, she was born in a nursing home. The employees of this institution were not literate, and when one of the employees, François Poitou (Fran?
ois Poitu), did not know how to write Chanel (Chanel), he, having made a mistake, writes down the girl as Chasnel.
Coco had two sisters Juliana (1882-1913) and Antoinette (born 1887) and three brothers Alphonse (born 1885), Lucien (1889) and Pieter (born and died 1891). Coco Chanel herself points out that she herself was born in Auvergne in 1893, thereby taking away 10 years of her life, but nothing confirms this “theory”.
At the age of 12, mourning events took place in the biography of Coco Chanel - her mother dies from tuberculosis, and her father leaves the family, because he now needed to earn a lot of money to support his family. Therefore, the kids from the Chanel family had to spend as many as seven years in an orphanage at a Catholic monastery in Aubasina. Here Koko mastered the art of sewing, and during the holidays spent with
her relatives, she deepens her knowledge of sewing, due to the “departure” from the monastic style of clothing. At the age of eighteen, Koko starts working at a local tailor shop. Here is the turning point in the biography of Coco Chanel, she meets the French millionaire Etienne Balsan, and soon after they met, they open a common business.
Etienne showed Coco what it means to live a rich life, giving her various diamonds, dresses, pearls. At this time, she became interested in hats, this is a hobby, by the way, and will help her later come to fame. After a break with Etienne, she moved to Paris, where in 1913 she opened her first store, where you could buy fashionable raincoats and jackets. But since this store was not located in the "heart" of Paris, she quickly went bankrupt, but thanks to her strong character she did not give up. In these pre-war years, Coco Chanel meets another man who changed her life. It was Arthur Capel, with whom she falls in love very quickly. Thanks to Arthur, she opens a beanie shop in Brittany. These hats really liked the movie celebrities of France of those years, and her business quickly went up. Following this, a number of stores open throughout France, and the first aristocratic customers appear.
It is known that Coco Chanel avoided her biography, and she had to change it in every possible way. So she said that after the death of her mother, her father moved to America, where he became quite rich, and she herself had to live with her cold aunts, who annoyed her throughout her young years. In 1920, another event takes place in the life of Coco Chanel. She meets the outstanding Russian composer Igor Stravnitsky, who was forced to leave Bolshevik Russia, and Koko provided her apartments to Igor Fedorovich for the first time.
In 1923, the first fashion magazine, Harper's Bazaar, published an article about Coco Chanel. In this article, Koko says that she is used to making clothes that are comfortable for women, that most fashion designers are men, and they make very uncomfortable clothes. Criticizing them, she suggested that male fashion designers wear the clothes they made themselves and see how hard it is. Thus, Coco Chanel opened a new trend in modeling, aimed at simplifying clothes.
It is impossible not to note the event that occurred in the biography of Coco Chanel in 1921. At this time, she, together with the Russian emigrant Ernst Beau, made a revolution in perfumery. Their perfume Chanel No. 5 became the first polyaromatic perfume, since before all perfumes were monoaromatic, and were made from only one smell - a flower.
In 1925, another significant event takes place in the life of Coco Chanel: with the help of Vera Lombardi, she opens the House of Chanel.
After the start of the Second World War, Coco closes all his stores, calling this time "not the time of fashion." And she settles in the Ritz Hotel, and lives there for about 30 years. The Ritz was her home even when Paris was occupied by the Nazis. During these troubled times, Coco herself was forced to spend time in prison, as she was in close contact with Vera Lombardi, who was convicted of complicity with the British secret services.
Coco Chanel is a style icon of the 20th century. Great woman. But few people know how her personal life developed? And did she have children? I will say no right away ... And why this happened, you will find out in my article ..
Personal life and children of Coco Chanel.
Coco Chanel, or rather Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, was born in France in 1883 in a very poor family.
When Koko was 11 years old, her mother passed away. And dad soon left her and her sister in the monastery orphanage. She never saw her father again. There she grew up.
As a child, she dreamed of becoming a ballerina.
After the orphanage, Koko tried to succeed in life, but she did not succeed. She went to work as an assistant to a lingerie salesman in a store. And in parallel, she ran around the katsings for the role of a dancer, actress and singer. In one of the eateries, where she tried to sing, she was given the nickname KOKO.
But as you can see, neither the singer, nor the dancer, nor the actress Coco was taken ...
At 22, Coco met a wealthy officer, Etienne Balsam, and immediately became his mistress. Later, thinking about what she would do next, she decided to become a milliner and told her wealthy sponsor about it. But at first he did not accept this idea at all. she had no experience and there were a lot of milliners ...
Plzzhe Koko met another sponsor - the Englishman Arthur Capel, who opened a hat shop for her in 1910 and radically changed her life.
In 1924, Coco (she was 41) met the Duke of Westminster, the richest man in England. And a new romance began, which lasted 6 years. And again, as a mistress and kept woman was our great Chanel. And the duke managed to marry and divorce twice, make new mistresses ... And all this happened even during the relationship with Koko.
It seems that the status of a mistress and a kept woman haunted Koko all her life ...
Koko wanted children, but it did not work out ...
Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur, nicknamed Coco Chanel, was a leading French couturier whose modernism, inspiration for men's fashion and pursuit of expensive simplicity in her clothing made her perhaps the most important figure in 20th century fashion history. Chanel brought the fitted jacket and little black dress to women's fashion. Coco's influence on high fashion was so strong that she, the only one from the fashion world, was included in the list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century by Time magazine.
The founder of the most famous and chic fashion house many decades ago, laid the tradition of timeless elegance, timeless. Instead of endless innovations, Gabrielle Coco Chanel offered an updated classic of pleated skirts, women's trousers and blazers. Coat, and, of course, the famous Chanel-style suit. The ideas that she embodied at the beginning of the 20th century turned out to be truly revolutionary: she freed women from suffocating corsets, long puffy skirts, extravagant hats and intricate jewelry. Simple, strict, clear lines, emphasizing the dignity and hiding the flaws of the figure, have replaced ruffles and frills. Women enthusiastically accepted the ingenious philosophical concept of Chanel: to look great, you do not have to be young and beautiful. Chanel fashion never gets old. All her clothes - simple and comfortable, but at the same time stylish and elegant remain relevant from year to year, regardless of the changes taking place in the fashion world.
Success Story, Biography of Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel Born August 19, 1883 in Saumur (France). Her parents, Albert Chanel (market trader) and Eugenia Jeanne Devol (daughter of a rural carpenter), were not married. Gabrielle's mother died of asthma when the girl was twelve years old. A week after her death, her father left Gabrielle and her two sisters in a Catholic orphanage in Aubazine. After that, Gabriel will never see his father again.
At the orphanage, Gabrielle continued to create her world. She kept hoping that her father would take her away, and talked about it with other girls. And when they tried to be ironic, hinting at the fact that he never even visits her, Gabrielle explained that he simply did not have time. And she told the story that her father owns huge vineyards and lives in New York, where he exports wine. Of course, he is too busy to come to this miserable village...
An orphan who grew up in an orphanage at that time had no future. Nevertheless, Chanel's dreams of a wonderful deliverance and a brilliant future that awaited her arose already in these years. Having been forced to wear a uniform for many years, she dreamed of dressing all women in her own way. In the future, she will never mention her years in the orphanage. Moreover, she will do everything possible to erase from her memory all the misfortunes and poverty that seemed to have been prepared for her by fate.
Having left the orphanage at the age of 20, she did not have to look for work; on the recommendation of the monastery, young Gabrielle got a job as an assistant in the sale of linen in a knitwear shop in the city of Moulins. Gabrielle quickly earned the respect of new owners and customers - Chanel skillfully sewed women's and children's clothes.
Chanel spent her free time from work in an institution called the Rotunda. Moulins was a garrison town. The officers lived there. Many of them were noble and wealthy. Cafeshantan (that is, a cafe with a stage) "Rotonda" was a favorite place for their gatherings. Gabrielle became the favorite of the officers - they were attracted by her charisma and unusual appearance: a tight black braid braided around her head and strangely burning eyes. She was different from others, she created her own world, and this was her strength.
Once in the Rotunda, Gabrielle drank champagne and suddenly decided that her future was to become a famous singer. She loved to sing before that - in the institute choir, but she never performed on the stage. The officers liked the idea, and they agreed with the director of the Rotunda about concerts. Fantasy burst into life, and Gabrielle, blushing and stammering, really began to perform. Many people liked it. The songs "Ko Ko Ri Ko and Qui qua vu Coco" were especially popular with the officers. She was often called for an encore, chanting: “Ko-ko! Ko-ko! So this name stuck with her. True, Mademoiselle Chanel did not like to remember her singing career and explained the origin of this nickname differently: “ My father adored me and called me chicken"(in French - coco) ...
In general, the motive of contempt for her own origin, for the poverty that surrounded her in childhood and adolescence, haunted Chanel throughout her life. This complex has become one of the fundamental in her stormy activities, in an effort to achieve success and recognition by any means. She wanted to save herself from humiliation and forget her impoverished childhood without affection and love, emptiness and loneliness. And so, when in 1905 the young bourgeois Etienne Balsan appeared in her life, personifying idleness and luxury, she decided that this man was created for her.
Coco Chanel agreed to his proposal to be together and settled with him in the aristocratic suburb of Paris - Vichy. Koko enjoyed all the advantages of the new position: she lay in bed until noon and read cheap novels. Although at first she liked the new life in the castle, she was never able to get used to the role of a mistress (Balsan did not consider her the woman with whom life should be connected).
Coco Chanel - fashion designer and entrepreneur
Three years later, Coco met a friend of Balsan - a young Englishman Arthur Capel, nicknamed Boy. It was to him that Chanel owed the start of her career: he advised the girl he liked to open a hat shop and promised to provide financial support. Coco changed the lock to Arthur's bachelor apartment in Paris. Here she began to make and sell her hats to all of Boy's former mistresses and their many girlfriends. Chanel's business quickly went uphill, and at the end of 1910, taking money from a friend, she moved to the Rue Cambon and opened her atelier there with a bold sign "Chanel Fashion". Very soon, this street will become known to the whole world and will be associated with its name for half a century.
| After she opened her own business and was given the opportunity to apply her taste and her abilities, Coco Chanel developed into an entrepreneurial woman for the rest of her life. Nothing could stop her: neither the lack of experience, nor the First World War, which broke out soon. Until the end of her life, she continued to work as a designer and as an entrepreneur, bringing to life her ideas about the art of being elegant.Her business has become a phenomenon hitherto unknown in fashion history. Before Chanel, tailors were never part of high society. Coco Chanel changed public opinion about the designer's work. She has become a magnetic person of international proportions. She was accepted and invited everywhere, even in the most aristocratic circles. However, this didn't surprise her at all. She commented on her fame like this - “ I didn't enter society because I had to design clothes. Vice versa. I designed clothes because I lived in a society where I became the first woman to live the full life of this century..» |
In 1913, Coco opened a thriving hat boutique in Deauville. But she dreamed of developing her own line of women's clothing. Chanel did not have the right to make a “real” women's dress: since she was not a professional dressmaker, she could be held accountable for illegal competition. Coco found a way out: she began to sew dresses from jersey - a fabric that had previously been used only for sewing men's underwear, and made a fortune on it. All her opening outfits were born in a similar way. Creating, Coco did not refine, but simplified. She did not draw her models or sew them, but simply took scissors, threw the fabric over the model and cut and stabbed the shapeless mass of matter until the desired silhouette appeared. Coco quickly entered the world of fashion, attracting everyone's attention: she created a style that was previously unthinkable for women - tracksuits; she dared to appear on the beaches of seaside resorts in a "sailor suit" and a tight skirt. And in a couple of years, Koko will show a redingote without a belt and jewelry, removing the bust and curves with almost masculine severity. She will create a low waist, shirt dress, women's trousers and beach pajamas. Thus was born the style of Chanel - simple, practical and elegant.
In 1919, Kopel died in a car accident. "... Gabrielle saw the pile of mangled metal that had only recently been a machine, ran her hand lightly over the glass. There was blood everywhere - the blood of Arthur Capel, the man she loved. She sat down on the side of the road and wept. And when she returned home, she repainted the walls black and turned into mourning. Gabrielle Chanel was already very famous - and thousands of imitators instantly followed her example. This is how black came into fashion..»
« This death was the hardest blow for me. With the death of Capel, I lost everything", she confessed. And in another interview of that time she said: A woman cannot be happy if she is unloved. Because that's all she needs. A woman who is not loved is zero and nothing more. Believe me: she is young or old, mother, lover ... A woman who is not loved is a lost woman. She can die in peace, it doesn't matter anymore».
In the summer of 1920, when Coco opened a large fashion house in Biarritz, she already had clients all over the world. People loved her blazers, skirts, long jersey sweaters, sailor suits and the famous suit (skirt + jacket).
The Russians helped her out of the depression in which she arrived after the death of "Boy". She met Diaghilev and Stravinsky, began to provide them with financial support (for example, she gave Diaghilev 300 thousand francs for the production of The Rite of Spring, and after 10 years spent sleepless nights at his bedside when he was dying in Venice, and then gave money for his funeral).
Soon, communication with the Russian diaspora led Koko to Grand Duke Dmitry, grandson of Alexander II and cousin of Nicholas II. - because he was not in Russia during the Great October Revolution). Dmitry Pavlovich ended up in France without a penny in his pocket, and he lived, to put it mildly, not in a big way. However, he became Gabrielle's lover. Coco Chanel fell in love and took the young prince to support... From that moment on, the so-called Russian period begins in the work of the Chanel house. There are many models that use Russian motifs as their basis.
It was Dmitry Romanov who introduced Coco Chanel to the famous perfumer Ernest Bo. Bo's father worked for many years at the court of His Imperial Majesty. And it was an excellent specialist who fully inherited the talent of his ancestor. Here it is worth noting that up to this point, women's perfumes were quite monotonous. No one used at least a few flavors in their production. There were so-called lavender perfumes, perfumes with the smell of roses, jasmine. But no one used mixes of several flavors. After a year of hard work, Ernest Beau presented Coco with several perfumes designed "for a woman that smell like a woman." Chanel chose the fifth option.
This is how the now famous perfume Chanel No. 5 appeared, which had 80 fragrances, and did not repeat any of the known flowers. For the perfume, a special rectangular crystal bottle was made, which today is truly iconic. There was a small label "Chanel No. 5" on the bottle. Since then, spirits began to conquer the world. And today they are the best-selling on our planet. And that means a lot!
A little later, the Chanel fashion house introduced another type of product - jewelry. And here Koko outdid herself. She decided to mix natural stones and rhinestones. The result exceeded all expectations. By that time, Coco Chanel was already used to it. She herself began to dictate fashion. Everything that her House produced was fashionable.
Already the uncrowned queen of Parisian fashion, Chanel offered her clients a few more revolutionary changes: plaid trousers, a short haircut ... In 1926 Coco Chanel created her "little black dress" (in the past - the uniform of Parisian saleswomen), which became a multifunctional thing out of fashion, thus establishing the concept of minimalism in the modeling business.
In order to expand the circle of her clients, and at the same time draw on new creative ideas and creativity, Coco Chanel did not stop rotating in the circles of Parisian bohemia. It was here that she met the great Pablo Picasso, the playwright Jean Cocteau... Many were looking for communication with the famous fashion designer just out of curiosity, but they were surprised to find Coco an intelligent, witty, original-minded woman. Picasso himself called her the most reasonable woman in the world. Men were attracted to her not only by her appearance, but also by her extraordinary personal qualities, strong character, and unpredictable behavior. Koko was either irresistibly flirtatious, or extremely sharp, straightforward, even cynical. People around liked her purposefulness And self-confidence, she gave the impression of a woman pleased with herself and her successes.
There have always been many love affairs in the life of this woman, but none of them ended in anything serious. Through the invisible channels of love, she uninterruptedly “pumped” the knowledge and skills of her men into herself. Each of them was a person. And Coco for the time being became tracing paper, carbon paper, Chekhov's Darling. Riding, savoring oysters, English, playing tennis, hunting foxes and wild boars, fishing, publishing newspapers I learned from them perfectly. Each of her men brought something of his own to women's fashion and to her other undertakings.
The next change in the Chanel collections was again associated with the love adventures of the mistress of the house. Coco fell in love with the Duke of Westminster. From that moment began the English period in the history of the house of Chanel. Roman Coco and the Duke lasted for 14 years. That is how long the corresponding period in the work of the great Mademoiselle Chanel lasted. Perhaps its most notable stage was the fact that Coco instilled a fashion for wearing jewelry over ordinary sweaters. In England, no one practiced this. To Chanel. The discord between the Duke and Coco occurred when it became clear that Chanel could no longer give him heirs. She was 46 years old, and the doctors stated this unfortunate fact.
10 years out of fashion
Despite the enormous success of his clothes, in 1939 Coco closes all the shops and the fashion house, the Second World War begins. Many designers have left the country, but Coco remains in Paris. In September 1944, at the initiative of the Committee on Public Morals, Chanel was arrested. The reason was Koko's love affair with a high-ranking German officer Walter Schellenberg, assistant to the SS commander Heinrich Himmler. She was released a few hours after her arrest. Shortly thereafter, Chanel left for Switzerland, where she lived for almost ten years.
The return of Coco Chanel to the world of fashion
In 1954, at the age of 70, she triumphantly returned to the world of fashion. " I could no longer see what designers like Dior or Balmain had done to Parisian haute couture.- so she explained her return.
The first reaction of connoisseurs and the press to the show of the new Chanel collection was shock and indignation - she could not offer anything new! Alas, critics failed to understand that this is precisely her secret - nothing new, only eternal, ageless elegance. Koko answered criticism with dignity, but very sharply - “ Nothing makes a woman look older like a suit that is too rich." or " Beware of originality, in women's fashion, originality can lead to a masquerade". In any case, less than a year later, a new generation of fashionistas began to consider it an honor to dress from Chanel, and Coco herself turned into a tycoon, managing the largest house in the global fashion industry.
During the difficult war years, many Parisian fashionistas lost their brocade dresses and ostrich feather boas. Instead, Chanel offered them simple shirt-cut blouses and straight-to-the-knee skirts, replicas of her own unpretentious but always up-to-date wardrobe. Parisian women embraced Chanel's "elegant simplicity" with delight, and in the late 50s, fashionistas who recognized Chanel's style could already be seen throughout Europe. A well-dressed suit, a flirty hat that covers half of the face, high heels - the image of an elegant, confident and sexy lady without age. All that was missing was the last, barely perceptible, but necessary accent - a drop of perfume that would emphasize this image. Then Chanel created a perfume that became the most famous in the world and recognized as a work of art by descendants. Coco called her perfume "Chanel N 5". If someone today wants to buy real French perfume, Chanel N 5 comes to mind first of all. All her life she considered the five her lucky number, which invariably brings her good luck. It is no coincidence that she always showed her new collections on the fifth day.
Between the 1950s and 1960s, Coco worked with many Hollywood studios and stars like Audrey Hepburn and Liz Taylor. In 1969, actress Katharine Hepburn played the role of Chanel in the Broadway musical Coco.
In the post-war years, Coco had a dangerous competitor - Christian Dior, who made women look like flowers by dressing them in crinoline, tightening their waists and putting numerous folds on their hips. Chanel laughed at this "hyperfemininity": " A man who has not had a single woman in his entire life strives to dress them as if he were a woman himself.».
Mademoiselle Coco was generally jealous and stingy. She always wore scissors tied to a ribbon around her neck. There was a case when Chanel, seeing a Givenchy suit on one of her fashion models, came up and instantly ripped it open, saying that now the suit looks better.
Coco Chanel famous arrogance towards others to her people - she humiliated those to whom she did good. It was said about her that her gifts were like slaps in the face. Koko's statements about people were murderous, and her rudeness smacked of arrogance. She was amazingly efficient, energetic and despised people. " I don't care what you think of me. I do not think about you at all' she often said.
Until her old age, Chanel retained the flexibility of her figure and was very hardworking. Ideas for new costumes came to her even in a dream, and then she woke up and started working.
The performance of the queen of fashion was unique. She created her last collection at the age of 88. Chanel herself had no doubt that at the heart of her strength lies a philosophy that reveals a woman's attitude to the world in which she lives. Chanel, who dressed the beautiful half of the world, said: “ The main thing in a woman is not clothes, but cute manners, prudence and a strict daily routine. A woman should be feminine and athletic and never fool herself with empty talk. She must know why and where she needs to go, what is the purpose of each gesture and look. We must preserve our own uniqueness: in movements, thoughts, actions. To be able to resist even the demands of fashion».
Coco Chanel explained her active longevity by the fact that she never led a nocturnal bohemian life - “ After a sleepless night you will not create anything worthwhile during the day". She said - " One cannot indulge in gluttony and alcohol, which destroy the body, and yet hope to have a body that functions with minimal disruption. A candle that burns at both ends can, of course, spread the brightest light, but the darkness that follows will be long.».
Gabrielle Chanel died a quiet death on January 10, 1971, at the age of 88, in a suite at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, across the street from the luxuriously decorated, world-famous House of Chanel. She was buried in Lausanne - in a grave surrounded by five stone lions. Her empire earned $160 million a year, and only three outfits were found in her wardrobe, but "very stylish outfits," as the Great Fashion Queen would say.
Six success secrets of Coco Chanel
For 88 years of life, the Great Mademoiselle gave her name to the style of clothing, costume, fashion house, perfume. A tireless inventor, Chanel created a lot of new things, but above all ... a woman that no one knew before her. The orphan from the orphanage went down in history forever - she chanelized the whole world. How? She had her ways.
Every morning Coco Chanel started living again. She methodically got rid of the burden of her unfavorable past. Every new day she erased from her memory everything painful from yesterday. Childhood and part of her youth are shrouded in a veil of mist. She created her legend on her own, inventing facts, confusing her biographers. Gabrielle had thrown at least 10 of her years overboard like trash, and realizing this, oddly enough, she felt that she had more time. She began to need less sleep, to think more fruitfully. With her fate, she proved: the future does not follow from the past at all, you can start a career at any moment. It was easy for her to close her main brainchild, the Fashion House, for many years, so that later, at 71, when she was no longer taken into account, she would return to business and reach former heights.- Chanel considered any obstacle in the way as a sign of a new direction. At the beginning of her career, she was not allowed to make a "real" women's dress, as she could be prosecuted for illegal competition, because she was not a professional dressmaker. Then Chanel began to make dresses from men's jersey and created a fortune on this. How did she manage to achieve success so quickly? And she just had no other choice. To resolutely rebel against everything that was in the fashion of that era, she was forced by nothing more than her own body. Thin and did not fit into the generally accepted canons of that time. Anything expensive and magnificent simply did not physically fit this body, and therefore she despised chic fabrics and was drawn to cheap knitwear. Once, a gas column caught fire at Koko and scorched her curls. Then the innovator cut off her braids and proudly went “to the people”. So in 1917, a fashion for a short female haircut arose. Before Chanel, women were required to have long hair.
- Chanel did not allow random people into her life, so almost no random events happened to her. The criterion was elementary: she sensitively recognized those who did not like, and left them.
Coco Chanel made paradox her way of life and the driving force behind her talent. Before her, black was considered the color of poverty and mourning. Women didn't dare to wear black clothes for no reason. Chanel proclaimed black popular and luxurious. For five years, she produced only black, and her “dark” dresses were sold like buns, stuffed with a small white collar and cuffs. With Chanel began white women's pajamas. In general, she "robbed" men, introduced their jackets, blouses with ties, their cufflinks and hats into women's fashion.- Independence was her god, the axiom of life. Even with her first lover, Coco discovered the freedom that money gives if you do not serve them, but they serve you. Friends lived luxuriously at her expense, she covered their huge debts. It was her principle - to pay in order to forget that she was once paid for. With money she got rid of my shyness, because before in the salons she did not open her mouth. The colossal profits gave her confidence and the ability to speak in public.
- External beauty in a woman was proclaimed by her as a part of success, otherwise it is impossible to convince anyone of anything. The older the lady, the more important it is for her to be beautiful. Chanel said: At 20, your face is given to you by nature, at 30 - it is sculpted by life, but at 50 you have to earn it yourself ... Nothing ages like the desire to look younger. After 50, no one is young anymore. But I know 50-year-olds are more attractive than three-quarters of ill-groomed young women.". Chanel herself looked like an eternal radiant teenager. She weighed all her life as much as in 20 years. And one more thing: she gave the ladies not only a new style, but also a new face that embodied the era - "the face of a rebellious orphan with the grace of a deer." Two or three times a century, non-standard types of faces appear, which suddenly overshadow the recognized beauties and introduce a different canon of beauty. Chanel was one of those!
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Coco Chanel (real name Gabrielle Chanel) is a style icon, one of the most famous fashion designers in the world, the founder of the clothing and perfume brand Chanel. The style created by Chanel embodies an entire era, and in it - elegance, minimalism in the use of accessories and convenience. Chanel was an extraordinary and complex person in life - she for the most part despised people and was ready to go over their heads for the sake of her success and profit.Childhood and family
The future celebrity Gabrielle Chanel was born in 1883 (although she herself claimed that she was born 10 years later) in a poor family of a market trader and the daughter of a rural carpenter. When Gabrielle was born, her parents were not married, it was their second daughter. The girl was registered in a shelter, and she was given a name in honor of the nurse Gabriel, who helped the baby to be born. 
Gabrielle's mother, Jeanne Devol, died when the girl was only eleven years old. Literally a week later, her father left her with her sister and two brothers - until she came of age, Gabriel had to live in a shelter at the monastery.
It would seem that the backstory is not at all successful - however, the experience gained by Chanel in the orphanage determined her future life. The fact is that it was the nuns who taught the girl to sew, so that, after leaving the institution, Gabrielle was able to get a job as a saleswoman in the Au Sans Pareil lingerie store.
First steps to success
In addition to her passion for fashion design, Gabrielle loved to sing and even performed in a cabaret. It was then that she got the nickname Coco because her favorite songs were "Ko Ko Ri Ko" and "Qui qua vu Coco". In one of these cabarets, the girl met a wealthy retired officer, Etienne Balzan, who soon offered her to move to his real castle in Paris. Chanel agreed, but it was not her style to depend on someone. 
Soon, remembering the sewing lessons in the orphanage, she realized that she wanted to become a milliner (a craftswoman in the manufacture of women's hats, dresses and linen), and with the help of a young English entrepreneur Arthur Capel in 1910 she was able to open her own hat shop in Paris - it is still Pore is located opposite the Ritz Hotel at 31 rue Cambon.
The beginning of a design career
When Coco Chanel opened her own business and was able to give free rein to her taste and abilities, nothing could stop her - neither lack of experience, nor even the First World War. She worked both as an entrepreneur and as a designer, bringing to life all her ideas for creating elegance - she brought women's trousers into fashion, that same little black dress. The style she created was later called "simple luxury" - in order to dress in the style of Chanel, you first need taste, and not a lot of money. 
But Gabrielle's clients had money, and they were happy to buy hats and clothes from the original milliner. Very soon, Coco's business became a phenomenon that had not been before in the history of fashion. Chanel herself became the first tailor to enter high society, and was not a servant of wealthy customers. Composers, choreographers, artists, directors, entrepreneurs became her friends. The girl changed public opinion about the work of the designer, becoming an attractive personality of an international scale.
“I entered the cream of society not because I created clothes. On the contrary. After all, I created clothes because I was in a society where I became the first woman who lived the full life of my century, ”Coco Chanel commented on her fame.
Coco Chanel paid attention to high-ranking aristocrats. For example, a woman was part of the circle of friends of the Russian Grand Duke Dmitry and the English Duke of Westminster. Many successful men tried to achieve her hands, but she was really only concerned about her business. At the suggestion of the Duke of Westminster, Coco replied that there could be many Duchesses of Westminster, but Chanel was the only one.
At the age of fifty, Coco Chanel was at the pinnacle of her fame and beauty. She dressed with a sense of absolute freedom and bathed in glory. It was at this time that she was most admired. The years of the fiftieth anniversary were the golden ones in the biography of the once poor girl Gabrielle.
And if during the First World War the designer managed to stay afloat, then after the announcement of the Second World War in 1939, Chanel had to close all her salons - at such a time there was no place for fashion. Despite the occupation of Paris, Coco remained at that time in the French capital and even managed to rescue her nephew from captivity.
In September 1944, at the initiative of the Committee on Public Morality, a woman was arrested because of rumors about her connection with the German officer Hans Günther von Dunckleg. Soon she was released at the request of Churchill with the condition that she leave France. Chanel went to Switzerland and lived there for almost ten years. According to researcher Hal Vaughan, Chanel was not only the mistress of an accomplice of Nazism, but also supplied information to the German government.
Coco Chanel interview with French television (1969)
Coco Chanel's personal life
The life of the famous fashion designer was full of novels, but none of them turned into marriage - it seems that Chanel did not need this. She was credited with novels with the Russian émigré composer Igor Stravinsky, the Duke of Westminster and even the Nazi officer Hans von Dinklage. According to some sources, Chanel was bisexual. 
The famous perfume "Chanel No. 5" appeared in 1921. Their author is a Russian emigre perfumer Ernest Bo. The uniqueness of these perfumes lies in the fact that before Chanel, women's perfumes did not have complex smells. Coco was an innovator and offered women the first synthesized perfume.
Coco Chanel made popular little black dresses that were allowed to be worn all day, complemented by various accessories. So she proved that once considered mourning, black can be elegant and perfectly complement the evening look.
The merits of Coco Chanel include the creation of unique handbags. “I’m tired of carrying reticules in my hands, and besides, I always lose them,” Gabrielle said in 1954. A year later, she presented a small rectangular handbag on a long chain. As a result, women were able to carry the bag, conveniently hanging it on their shoulders.
Coco Chanel. Life of Wonderful People
Last years of life. Death
Years passed, and the notoriety of Chanel gradually faded into the past. If pre-war fashion was dominated by women designers, for example, Chanel, Chiaparelli, Lanvin, Vionnet, then in the post-war fashion men, among whom were Dior and Balenciaga, were in power. It seemed that the success of Dior left no future for the fashion created by Chanel. 
However, in 1953, Coco Chanel decided to reopen her salon in Paris. Then the famous Frenchwoman was already 70 years old. On February 5, 1954, the House of Chanel was inaugurated. Critics were merciless and smashed her new collection. However, Gabrielle remained deaf to criticism - it took her only three years to return to the Olympus of glory again.
On January 10, 1971, Coco Chanel died at the age of 87 at the Ritz from a heart attack. She was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland, with five lions carved on the top of her tombstone.
Fashion designer Coco Chanel has become world famous for her revolutionary approach to women's fashion. She herself was a style icon, creating simple and at the same time sophisticated outfits and accessories,
early years
The famous fashion designer Coco Chanel was born in France in the city of Saumur in 1883 in the family of a poor street vendor and received the name Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel at birth. After the death of her mother at the age of 12, Koko was given to an orphanage at a convent. It was there that she learned to sew - a craft that would later become her life's work and bring her worldwide fame and fortune. At the age of 18, the girl left the orphanage and moved to Moulin, where she got a job as a dressmaker. In the evenings, she sang in a cabaret, where she received her nickname Coco, which came from the titles of the songs she performed "Ko Ko Ri Ko" and "Qui qu'a vu Coco". The external attractiveness of Koko really liked her listeners, however, she did not have outstanding vocal abilities and soon realized that a stage career was not for her. 
An innovator in the world of fashion and fragrances
At the age of 20, Chanel met the heir of one of the wealthy families of France and Etienne Balsan and moved to him in Compiègne. He invited Coco to start her own business in Paris, and in 1910 she opened her first hat shop. Then stores were opened in the cities of Deauville and Biarritz. But in this Coco was already helped by a new lover - Balsan's close friend Arthur Capel, a wealthy Englishman.
Starting with hats, she soon began selling other wardrobe items. Her first success in this field came with a dress that she created from old stocks of jersey fabric. Answering the questions of fashionistas, where she bought such a dress, the enterprising Coco offered her services in tailoring it. As she herself later admitted, her wealth was created on the very piece of jersey that she put on one cold day.
In the 1920s the designer released the first perfume - "Chanel No. 5". The history of the creation of the fragrance itself and the bottle for it is shrouded in many legends. So, for example, they say that the perfumer Ernest Bo, whom Mademoiselle Chanel turned to, presented 10 different fragrances to her court. Coco chose the fifth of them, and so the name of her signature perfume appeared. Coco chose a strict and concise bottle design for her perfumes as a counterbalance to other manufacturers who competed with each other in the elegance and luxury of bottles.
In 1925, the designer introduced her legendary Chanel suit. It consists of a straight-cut skirt and a cropped jacket with patch pockets and no collar.
In the same 20s of the last century, Chanel created her little black dress. She showed the whole world how the color of sorrow can become spectacular and elegant in evening looks.
Her views on clothing for women were quite bold for that time: Chanel easily borrowed elements of the men's wardrobe and paid special attention to the comfort of women's clothing. She brought into fashion women's trousers, a tan and a flirtatious garcon haircut, and most importantly, she helped the ladies get rid of the corset and dared to shorten the length of the skirt.
Inspired by the traditions of the East, Coco opened a new page in the history of jewelry. She brought glass and plastic jewelry into fashion and combined it with precious stones and pearls. She herself wore jewelry constantly, using them in large quantities in her ensembles.
Personal life and scandal
Another significant romance for Coco began in 1923. Chanel met the wealthy Duke of Westminster, with whom relations continued until World War II. The duke even made an offer to Gabrielle, to which the proud Frenchwoman replied: “There may be several Duchesses of Westminster, but there is only one Chanel!”
Chanel had to close her fashion house and stores due to the occupation of France and the outbreak of World War II. At the time, Chanel had a close relationship with German military officer Hans Günther von Dinklage. After the war, she was accused of spying for Germany, but soon the suspicion of collaborationism was removed from her. It is believed that she managed to avoid the sad fate of a foreign agent only thanks to the guarantee of her longtime friend Winston Churchill.
Koko suffered from public condemnation, because many still considered her affair with a German to be a betrayal. Chanel left Paris and lived in Switzerland for several years.
The triumphant return of a legend
In 1954, Coco Chanel returned to the world of fashion, she was then 71 years old. She reopened her fashion house, which had not worked for a long 15 years. In a conversation with actress Marlene Dietrich, Chanel admitted that she did it because she "was just dying of boredom."
Later in the winter of 1955, Coco introduced her famous Chanel 2.55 bag to the fashionable public. According to the fashion queen herself, she did not like reticules, so she created a versatile black rectangular model on a long chain that allowed her to hang the bag on her shoulder, leaving her hands free.
At first, fashion critics made derogatory comments about the fashion designer, but her elegant and practical models soon again won the hearts of fashionistas around the world.
Fashion trendsetter Coco Chanel died in 1971 at the Ritz Hotel in 1971. Hundreds of admirers gathered at the Madeleine Church in Paris to say goodbye to the queen of style. In tribute to her creativity and contribution to the development of world fashion, many came to say goodbye in dresses from Chanel.