A life between light and shadow, between black and white
Coco Chanel was a woman of contrasts. While she was quickly called simply "Coco" because of a song she liked to sing, the people of the Great World called her "Mademoiselle Chanel". Scandalizing her time by being the first to wear pants, she hated jeans and even more miniskirts. On the verge of being mowed down at the liberation for her friendships with the occupiers, she was also close to Churchill. That's what Coco Chanel is all about. Black and white.
Born poor in Touraine
A hat created by Coco Chanel in 1912
Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. Born out of wedlock to a very poor family recently settled in Saumur. Her mother died young at 32, in front of her daughter. Immediately after her father placed her in an orphanage in Corrèze. An abandonment that she will never accept. She preferred to lie to herself by inventing an adventurer father, who had gone far away to make his fortune. It is however there, in the orphanage, that she is taught sewing. It will be her vocation.
A beauty that seduces, a talent that amazes
Later, her beauty makes men quiver. She accompanies them in the beautiful society. She is noticed there by dressing always different. Only dressed in her own creations or wearing her little hats. She amazes, she amazes and in the end, she makes you want to be like her. To adopt her simple style in an era that dresses busy. We want to be slim like her, in an era that loves fleshy women. One imagines oneself wearing her creations that she does not propose on catalogs, but which are paraded by women in front of women, whereas it is normal to buy on catalog.
Gabrielle Chanel wearing a simple "marinière" suit in 1928
Why "Chanel number 5"?
We want to wear the perfume she made for herself. It's the Number 5 sample that she chose. Sold in a bottle reminiscent of the vodka flask of her friend the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovitch. We even envy this tan that she put, at once, in fashion while it was only accidental, back from a stroll in the North Sea. She had not mistrusted the sun. It is this art of going against the grain of her time and her genius for elegance that made Coco Chanel, between light and shadow, the greatest name in French fashion.
Mademoiselle Chanel with Sir Winston Churchill
TOP 5 quotes by Coco Chanel
"Fashion goes out of fashion. Style? Never."
"It is with what cannot be learned that one succeeds"
"The most beautiful eyes are those that look at you with tenderness"
"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself"
"To be irreplaceable, one must be different"
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