Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel

 

 

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Pays/Ville

Birthplace: Saumur, France in the Loire Valley of France.

Residence: Paris, France at the Ritz Paris

 

Company Website: http://www.chanel.com

Blog/News: http://www.chanel.com/fashion/7-fashion-trends

 

  

Croyances Religieuses:

I lived, for seven years, in an orphanage of a Roman Catholic monastery of Aubazine.

 

Situation de Famille:

I am the daughter of Jeanne Devolle and Albert Chanel. I have three sisters, Antoinette, Julie, Alphonese and one brother, Lucien. My mother had another son, Augustin, who died in infancy. This son had also ruined her health, she was found head on February 1895 at age 35.

 

I never married but I did meet the love of my life, Arthur "Boy" Capel, in 1913.

 

Enfants:

I did not have any children  

 

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Education:

• Convent Orphanage, Aubazine, 1895-1900
• Convent School, Moulins, 1900-02.

 

En Cherchant:

New ideas for my designs.

 

Metier:

Brief career as a cafe and concert singer

Milliner

Fashion Designer

Served as a nurse in World War I

 

Interets/Loisirs:

• Designing new fashion collections

 

Head designer and creative director for the House of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld's merry-go-round for Chanel's 2008 Fall Collection under the domes of the Grande Palais in Paris, France.

 

Chanel Fall/Winter 2009/2010 Colection

 

Amis:

• Vera Bate Lombardi, my muse.  She also provided me as a public relations liaison to a number of the European Royal families.
• Misia Sert (nee Edwards).

 

Citation Memorable:

"In order to be irreplaceable, on must always be different."

"Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable."

 

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Accomplissements:

• The House of Chanel
• Member of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Pret-a-Porter.

 

Prix 

• Neiman Marcus Award 1957
• Only fashion designer to make the Time 100's Most Influential People of the 20th Century
• Fashion Oscar at  1957 Fashion Awards in Dallas
• Sunday Times International Fashion Award, London 1971

 

Expositions:

• Les Grands Couturiers Parisiens 1910-1939
• Musée du Costume, Paris, 1965
• Fashion: An Anthology, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1971
• The Tens, Twenties & Thirties, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977
• Folies de dentelles: Balenciaga, Cardin, Chanel, Dior…Exposition du 24 juin au octobre 2000, Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la dentelle, 2000.
• Chanel Hawaii: 25th Anniversary 9 mai 2009 to 6 juin 2009.

 

Works 

• Stage costume designs:
  • Bel Ami (Nozière), Paris, 1912
  • Antigone (Cocteau), Paris, 1923
  • Le Train Bleu (Diaghilev), Paris, 1924
  • Orpheus (Cocteau), Paris, 1926
  • Apollo Musagette (Stravinsky/Balanchine), New York, 1929
  • Oedipus Rex (Cocteau), Paris, 1937.
• Film costume designs:
  • Tonight or Never (Le Roy), 1931
  • La Regle du Jeu (Renoir), 1939
  • Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais), 1962.

 

Films 

Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel in the most recent film about me, "Coco avant Chanel".

 

• Chanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and stars Marie-France Pisier as Coco Chanel
• Coco Chanel, a Lifetime Television movie, premiered on 13 Septembre 2008 starred Shirley MacLaine as a 70-year-old Coco Chanel and Barbora Bobulova as the young version of me and was directed by Christian Duguay.
• Audrey Tautou portrayed the young Coco Chanel in a recent movie released on 22 Avril 2009, titled Coco avant Chanel.
• Another film concerning the affair between me and the composer Igor Stravinsky, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, was choosen to close the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It is directed by Jan Kounen and stars Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen. The film is based on the 2002 novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh.
• Two more projects are said to be in the works and well as a number of biopics. 

 

 

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Parfums:

 

No. 5 "the world's most legendary fragrance"

No. 5 Eau Premiere

Chance

Chance Eau Fraiche

Allure

Allure Sensuelle

Coco

Coco Mademoiselle

No. 19

Christalle

Les Exclusifs de Chanel: Eau de Cologne, 28 La Pausa, Bel Respiro, Beige, No. 22, Gardenia, Cuir de Russie, Coromandel, No. 18, Sycomore, Bois des Iles, 31 Rue Cambon

For men: Allure Homme, Allure Homme Edition Blanche, Allure Homme Sport, Antaeus, Platinum Egoiste, Egoiste, Pour Monsieur 

 

 

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Mon Influence sur la Culture Francaise

     As being one of Time's 100's most influential people of the 20th century, it is obvious my influence on both French culture, as well as the world's, is immense. I have brought various styles, details, creations, and ideas to women's fashion. No other fashion designer has ever execceded either my celebrity or my legend. I am perhaps mostly remembered for my modernist philosophies that revolutionizing women's fashions. Even in my youth, I disliked the fussy creations popular in my time period. I introduced practical clothing that incorporated menswear into women's attire.

     After centuries of tight corsets and layers upon layers of lace, padding, and underclothes, I introduced women to clothing made of jersey, a comfortable type of material. However, jersey had never been used before in couture houses. Clothing could now be fashionable for women yet still have the freedom of men's clothing. I incorporated riding breeches, hacking jackets, wide-leg trousers, men's sweaters and blazers into women's clothing. My straight, simple, uncorseted look was met with praise and critical acclaim. Vogue even labeled me as the "Ford" of clothing for my designs had a serviceable and enduring quality to them. Women around the world denoted it as the "Chanel Look". I was said to have a knack of knowing what women wanted in their clothing. My ultimate rule when designing my clothing was that said clothing must be easy to wear. This was fairly simple to ensure because many of my sketches were started on an abstract entity rather than a human body. Among other concerns, I loved to mix costume jewelery with genuine jewels and was also among the ones who popularized sun bathing.

     My two most famous and most recognizable designs are a suit known as the Chanel suit and the Little Black Dress (LBD). The Chanel suit consists of two or three pieces: a cardigan-style jacket that was usually weighted with my trademark gilt chain which was stitched around the inside hem, a simple skirt, and a blouse was worn underneeth.  I later introduce the LBD which could be used for eveningwear, daywear, and cocktail dressing. I was know for my consistancy as well, other designers changed styles dramatically over the season, my Chanel suit was only refined over the course of various seasons.

     As I had said, in 1923, to Harper's Bazaar, "Simplicity is the keynote of all elegance." As one knows, my designs were always simple, comfortable, and revealing. My style is what led to the 1920's image of the "flapper", which, at that time, was said to be a new breed of more confident women that challenged the idea of socially accepted behavior demonstrated by a new look and attitude. This new "look" included short skirts, haircuts, using cosmetics, being able to be seen drinking cocktails or smoking in public. This new attitude included women going to more athletic events, driving, as well as going to nightclubs.

     As one can preceeve, I was indeed a unique in revolutionizing the fashion industry with the reform of dress. My influence has effected the designs of other fashion designers as well, such as Yves St. Laurent and well as Karl Lagerfeld, who took over designing the House of Chanel haute couture line and its prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) collections after my death.

 

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Icones

 

The Little Black Dress (LBD):                                                                                          The Chanel Suit:

 

My first LBD was a slash-necked, short silk dress                                                                                                   Used materials such as jersey to make a classic,

with only diagonal pin-tucks as decoration.                                                                                                           comfortable suit.

 

                                                                                    

 

 

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Resources:

 

 

"Coco Chanel." American Decades. Gale Research, 1998.

 

Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2009. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>

 

 

"Coco Chanel." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.

 

Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2009. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>

 

 

"Coco Chanel." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St. James Press, 2000.

Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2009. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>

Davis, Chad. Chanel Shop. 22 May 2008. <http://iaspace.pbworks.com/2-Gabrielle-Coco-Chanel#view=edit>

 

 

"Gabrielle (Bonheur) Chanel." Contemporary Designers, 3rd ed. St. James Press, 1997.

 

Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills: Gale, 200

 

9. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>

 

 

 

"Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel." Contemporary Fashion, 2nd ed. St. James Press, 2002.

Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2009. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>

Pouhier, Eric. Chanel, la maison mere, place Vendome. December 2005. 8 June 2009 <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Channel_headquarters.jpg>.

Unknown. 8 June 2009 <http://www.aiibox.com/images/>.

 

Unknown. 8 June <http://www.vintagetextile.com/little_black_dress.htm>

 

Unknown. 8 June <http://no31ruecambon.blogspot.com>