Coco Chanel - 1883–1971
French Fashion Designer and Business Woman
Added to the album by Howie, a wonderful man
The woman most credited with inventing timeless style and elegance. Who gave the fashion world the Chanel Suit, Bell-bottoms and, most importantly to me personally, the Little Black Dress. All wonderful additions to the catwalk and wardrobe.
Coco Chanel came from a very different world from the champagne and celebrity one she maintained in later life. Having lost her mother at the age of twelve, Coco moved into an orphanage and then at sixteen into a boarding house. She found work as a seamstress and sang in caberet bars for extra money. Life did not start easy for this legend of the fashion world.
After opening her first hat boutique 1910, Coco went on to own a number of other shops in her native Paris, catering for the wealthy, the aristocracy and the highest echelons of Parisian society. By the end of the decade, she was creating couture and designing costumes for celebrities, ballet companies and film stars.
In the 1920s, she created Chanel No. 5 perfume, still to this day one of the most popular and successful fragrances available.
What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.
Marilyn Monroe (Wonderful Woman No. 5 - http://iamawonderfulwoman.
blogspot.com/
2012/01/marilyn-monroe-wonderful
-woman-no-5.html)
The Chanel fashion label became (and continues to be) one of the world's leading fashion houses. The label specialises in luxury clothing, bags, perfumery and cosmetics. The success of her business afforded Coco a fabulously lavish lifestyle and made the former workhouse girl one of the most affluent women in society, with friends including members of the aristocracy and the British royal family.
In 1999, Time Magazine published a one hundred person strong list; The Most Important People of the Century. Coco was the only fashion designer to be included on the list.
There are definitely some not very wonderful things to consider about this woman... but that is not what this album is about. So for all her achievements, for climbing out of poverty and into success, for her creatively and business prowess, Coco is indeed a wonderful woman.
Fashion fades, only style remains the same.
Coco Chanel
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