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Coco Chanel

[shuh-nel; Fr. sha-nel]

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (August 19, 1883 – January 10, 1971) was a pioneering French fashion designer 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. 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.

Early life

She was born the second daughter of traveling salesman Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle in the small city of Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. There was a mis-spelling on her birth certificate that recorded her surname as "Chasnel", making the tracing of her roots almost impossible for biographers when Chanel later rose to prominence. Coco was born in a poorhouse. Her birth was recorded the following day. Two employees of the hospice went to city hall and declared the child of feminine gender. The hospice employees were illiterate, so when the mayor François Poitu wrote down the birth, no one knew how to spell Chanel so the mayor improvised and recorded it with an "s", making it Chasnel. Her parents married in 1883. She had five siblings: two sisters, Julie (1882-1913) and Antoinette (born 1887) and three brothers, Alphonse (born 1885), Lucien (born 1889) and Augustin (born and died 1891). In 1895, when she was 12 years old, Chanel's mother died of tuberculosis and her father left the family a short time later because he needed to work to raise his children. Because of his work, the young Chanel spent seven years in the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she learned the trade of a seamstress. School vacations were spent with relatives in the provincial capital of Moulins, where female relatives taught Coco to sew with more flourish than the nuns at the monastery were able to demonstrate. When Coco turned eighteen, she left the orphanage, and took up work for a local tailor.

While working at a tailoring shop she met and soon began an affair with the French playboy and millionaire Étienne Balsan who lavished her with the beauties of "the rich life", diamonds, dresses and pearls. While living with Balsan, Chanel began designing hats as a hobby, which soon became a deeper interest of hers. After opening her eyes, as she would say, Coco left Balsan and took over his apartment in Paris, France. In 1913, she opened up her very first shop which sold a range of fashionable raincoats and jackets. Situated in the heart of Paris, France it wasn't long before the shop went out of business and Chanel was asked to surrender her properties. This did not discourage Chanel; it only made her more determined. During the pre-war era, Chanel met up with an estranged and former best friend of Étienne Balsan, Arthur "Boy" Capel, whom she soon fell in love with. With his assistance, Chanel was able to acquire the property and financial backing to open her second millinery shop in Brittany, France. Her hats were worn by celebrated French actresses, which helped to establish her reputation. In 1913, Chanel introduced women’s sportswear at her new boutique in Deauville, in the Rue Gounaut-Biron; Marthe, Countess de Gounaut-Biron (daughter of American diplomat, John George Alexander Leishman), was Chanel's first aristocratic client. Her third shop and successor to her biggest store in France was located in Deauville, France, where more women during the World War I era came to realize that women were supposed to dress for themselves and not their men.

Later in life, she concocted an elaborate false history for her humble beginnings. Chanel would steadfastly claim that when her mother died, her father sailed for America and she was sent to live with two cold-hearted spinster aunts. She even claimed to have been born in 1893 as opposed to 1883, and that her mother had died when Coco was six instead of twelve. All this was done to diminish the stigma that poverty and orphanhood bestowed upon unfortunates in nineteenth-century France.

In 1920, she was introduced by ballet empresario Sergei Diaghilev to world famous composer Igor Stravinsky (Rite of Spring), to whom she extended an offer for him and his family to reside with her. During this temporary sojourn it was rumoured that they had an affair.

Chanel never married.

The Chanel empire

Coco Chanel's stylish, elegant designs revolutionized fashion during the 1910s, freeing women from the uncomfortable and stiff apparel worn at the end of the 19th century. Chanel furthered her own image: the woman of the 20th century, embodying independence, success, personality, style, and confidence. The influential Chanel suit, launched in 1924, was an elegant outfit composed of a knee-length skirt paired with a trim, boxy jacket, traditionally made of woven wool with black trim and gold buttons and worn with large costume-pearl necklaces.

Chanel also popularized the little black dress which had a blank-slate versatility that allowed it to be worn for both day and night. The black Chanel dress was strapless, backless and more than a little risqué. It shocked the general public at large but quickly became a fashion sensation. The Chanel dress premiered in the third-ever edition of Playboy. This added to the controversy surrounding the Chanel name.

Much imitated over the years, Chanel's designs were manufactured across more price categories than any other in the high-fashion world. It was Chanel who also introduced costume jewelry to the fashion world, using a variety of accessories such as necklaces, chains or pearls of several strands. A bag with golden handles, an elegant pearl necklace, and a tailored dress in black are the symbols of elegance and status that marked forever the history of fashion. But it was Chanel No. 5 - considered the number-one selling perfume in the world - which helped her become a millionaire. The perfume was created in 1921 by Ernest Beaux at the request of Chanel, who said that it was "a woman's perfume with the scent of woman." Its Art Deco bottle was incorporated into the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, New York, in 1959. Chanel No. 5 was the first synthetic perfume to take the name of a designer. One of her most famous quotes is, "This perfume is not just beautiful and fragrant. It contains my blood and sweat and a million broken dreams."

All her clothes were emblazoned with the famous Chanel symbol, the interlocking "C"s. This, however, was not her own design. The symbol was given to her by the owner of the Chateau de Cremat (a Chateau on the outskirts of Nice in the south of France). In 1923, she told Harper's Bazaar that "simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance." Chanel always kept the clothing she designed simple and comfortable and revealing. She took what were considered poor fabrics like jersey and upgraded them. She was instrumental in helping to design the image of the 1920s flapper, a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to new jazz music, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. The flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and showing a lot of skin.

The German designer Karl Lagerfeld has been, since 1983, the art director of Chanel, both for the haute couture and prêt-à-porter.

Later years

In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, the designer closed her shops. She believed that it was not a time for fashion. She took up residence in the Hôtel Ritz Paris and for more than 30 years, Chanel made this hotel her home, even during the Nazi occupation of Paris. During that time she was criticized for having an affair with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German officer and Nazi spy who arranged for her to remain in the hotel. She also maintained an apartment above her couture house at 31, rue Cambon and built Villa La Pausa in Roquebrune on the French Riviera. In 1945, she moved to Switzerland, eventually returning to Paris in 1954, the year she also returned to the fashion world. Her new collection did not have much success with the Parisians because of her relationship with the Nazi spy; however, it was much applauded by the French, who had become her most popular buyers.

Death

Chanel died in Paris on January 10, 1971, 87 years old, in her private suite at the Hôtel Ritz, and she was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her tombstone is carved with stone lion heads representing her birth sign, Leo.

Film depictions

Chanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton and Rutger Hauer.

As of February 2008, several biopics of Chanel are in production.

On September 13, 2008, Coco Chanel on Lifetime Television aired, directed by Christian Duguay with Barbora Bobulova as the young Chanel, Shirley MacLaine portraying her in later life, and also starring Sagamore Stévenin, Olivier Sitruk, and Malcolm McDowell.

There is also a film project said to star Audrey Tautou as the young Coco, titled Coco Before Chanel. Filming on the project began September 15, 2008. Three more projects are said to be in the works: one directed by William Friedkin; one directed by Daniele Thompson; and one to star Demi Moore.

Broadway Production Coco

Chanel was portrayed by Katharine Hepburn on Broadway in the 1969 musical Coco, with music by André Previn, lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner, musical direction by Robert Emmett Dolan, orchestration by Hershy Kay, and dance arrangements by Harold Wheeler.

After 40 previews, the production opened on December 18, 1969 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, where it ran for 329 performances. Hepburn was nominated for a Tony Award, but did not win.