Coco Chanel - A quick history
From her first millinery shop, opened in 1912, to the 1920s, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel rose to become one of the premier fashion designers in Paris, France. Replacing the corset with comfort and casual elegance, her fashion themes included simple suits and dresses, women’s trousers, costume jewelry, perfume and textiles.
Coco Chanel claimed a birthdate of 1893 and a birthplace of Auvergne; she was actually born in 1883 in Saumur. According to her version of her life story, her mother worked in the poorhouse where Gabrielle was born, and died when Gabrielle was only six, leaving her father with five children whom he promptly abandoned to the care of relatives.
She adopted the name Coco during a brief career as a cafe and concert singer 1905-1908. First a mistress of a wealthy military officer then of an English industrialist, Coco Chanel drew on the resources of these patrons in setting up a millinery shop in Paris in 1910, expanding to Deauville and Biarritz. The two men also helped her find customers among women of society, and her simple hats became popular.
Soon Coco Chanel was expanding to couture, working in jersey, a first in the French fashion world. By the 1920s, her fashion house had expanded considerably, and her chemise set a fashion trend with its “little boy” look. Her relaxed fashions, short skirts, and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset fashions popular in the previous decades. Chanel herself dressed in mannish clothes, and adapted these more comfortable fashions which other women also found liberating.
In 1922 Coco Chanel introduced a perfume, Chanel No. 5, which became and remained popular, and remains a profitable product of Chanel’s company. Pierre Wertheimer became her partner in the perfume business in 1924, and perhaps also her lover. Wertheimer owned 70% of the company; Coco Chanel received 10% and her friend Bader 20%. The Wertheimers continue to control the perfume company today.
Coco Chanel introduced her signature cardigan jacket in 1925 and signature “little black dress” in 1926. Most of her fashions had a staying power, and didn’t change much from year to year — or even generation to generation.
Coco Chanel briefly served as a nurse in World War I. Nazi occupation meant the fashion business in Paris was cut off for some years; Chanel’s affair during World War II with a Nazi officer also resulted in some years of diminished popularity and an exile of sorts to Switzerland. In 1954 her comeback restored her to the first ranks of haute couture. Her natural, casual clothing including the Chanel suit once again caught the eye — and purses — of women. She introduced pea jackets and bell bottom pants for women. She was still working in 1971 when she died. Karl Lagerfeld has been chief designer of Chanel’s fashion house since 1983.
Chanel introduced a line of sunglasses in 1999 and also offers fashionable prescription eye glasses. Chanel sunglasses and Chanel eye glasses are available at Fine Eyewear, located the three corners of Cedar Park, Austin and Round Rock, TX and a short drive from Georgetown, TX. Our address is 2800 E. Whitestone Blvd Suite 210 Cedar Park, TX 78613. See main website for contact information. www.FineEyewear.Net
“Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”
“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
Coco Chanel
A woman has the age she deserves.
Coco Chanel
A women who doesn't wear perfume has no future.
Coco Chanel
As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!
Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.
Coco Chanel
Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress.
CoCo Chanel
Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.
Coco Chanel
Elegance is refusal.
Coco Chanel
Fashion fades, only style remains the same.
Coco Chanel
Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.
Coco Chanel
Fashion is made to become unfashionable.
Coco Chanel
Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.
Coco Chanel
How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.
I don't know why women want any of the things men have when one the things that women have is men.
Coco Chanel
I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.
Coco Chanel
In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.
Coco Chanel
Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.
Coco Chanel
Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.
Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.
My friends, there are no friends.
Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.
Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.
Coco Chanel
Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.
Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.
Coco Chanel
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
Coco Chanel
There have been several Duchesses of Westminster but there is only one Chanel!
Coco Chanel
There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time!
Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.
Coco Chanel
amen.
