Coco Chanel

Early Life

What comes to your mind when you hear the name “Chanel”? Definitely, Fashion !!

But do you know the fashion brand “Chanel” was founded by Coco Chanel? Let’s learn more about the creative fashion designer behind the foundation of the brand.

Coco Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman who championed & inspired chic and breathtaking fashion style for women through groundbreaking designs in the 20th century.

Chanel is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of women’s fashion with the record of being the only woman to appear on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Born on 19 August, 1883, in Saumur, France. Her parents were Eugénie Jeanne Devolle Chanel, a laundry woman, in the charity hospital run by the Sisters of Providence (a poorhouse) in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire and Albert Chanel was an itinerant street vendor who peddled work clothes and undergarments,  living a nomadic life, travelling to and from market towns.

Chanel was the second child of her parents. At the time, Chanel and her five other siblings
were living in a crowded one-room lodging in the town of Brive-la-Gaillarde.

Chanel lost her mother at 11. The death of their mother resulted in them not having an education. Chanel’s father sent his children away; the boys as farm laborers and the girls to the convent of Aubazine, where Chanel was raised by nuns in an orphanage.

Growing up in such an environment helped to shape Chanel’s future career, as she learnt to sew in the convent.

Career

After learning sowing from the covent, Chanel moved out of the convent to a boarding house for Catholic girls, where she got employment as a seamstress.

As a seamstress, Chanel finds time to sing when she is not sewing clothes. Chanel wanted to pursue a stage career as a singer but she soon realized it was not for her.

Chanel officially opened her first shop in Paris in 1910 selling hats before expanding to clothing. Her designs were simple and elegant and challenged the conventional designs of that time.

Chanel was known to be a shrewd businesswoman. She established her own fashion house, Perfums Chanel.

She was criticized for her anti-semitic views and faced a lot of controversy.

Chanel’s fashion business faced some challenges during World War II, which led to its closure in 1939 but she made a comeback in 1954 and revived the business.

Aside from being a fashion creator, Chanel made smart business moves by extending her influence beyond couture clothing into jewellery, handbags, and fragrance.

Coco Chanel also had her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, which has become an iconic product.

Incredibly, the famous Chanel logo was designed by her and has been in use since the 1920s.

Personal Life

As a youth, Chanel was involved in a few affairs with folks like Étienne Balsan and Captain Arthur Edward ‘Boy’ Capel.

Some of her early businesses were financed by these men but ended up unmarried and lonely in her later years.

She continued to work until her death in 1971 at the age of 87.