Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, also known as Coco Chanel lived an interesting, influencing and successful life making her name one of the biggest in fashion. She was born in Samur, France in 1883 to a very poor family. Her mother, Jeanne Dovolle passed away of bronchitis when Coco was 12 and 3 years after, her father abandoned her to an orphanage which she stayed at until the age of 18. Whilst at the orphanage, she was raised by nuns who taught her to sew.
Picture from Technerium
Once she left the orphanage she went on to be a café singer for a few years. She went on to meet a very rich man named Arthur Capel. Coco then opened a small hat shop in Deauville. As well as hats she sold sportswear which eventually caught the eye of many wealthy women, especially the trousers she sold. The clothes were recognised for their comfort and minimalistic, simple style. This was ground breaking for the fashion industry. Chanel became a business worth millions of dollars by the end of the 1920s. She didn't only design clothing and couture but she had a line of perfumes too. In 1955 she released the famous quilted flap bag, this is one of the most famous bags in society and how iconic the bag is causes the price to increase yearly.
Coco in front of one of the original Chanel shops. Picture from Chanel.com
She went on to create perfumes such as No5, Coco Mademoiselle and Chanel Chance. Coco was never married or had any children but, after her sister passed away she looked after her son. Sadly, she passed away in early 1971 in her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. A range of designers lead the company until 1983 when Karl Lagerfeld took over.
Karl Lagerfeld is known to have influenced and changed Chanel forever, after a while of the being known to be 'boring and bougie' says Vogue but thanks to Karl, that changed. While working for Chloé and Fendi at the time he joined the Chanel team in 1983 as creative director.
Karl was born in 1933 in Hamburg, Germany. In 1952 he moved to Paris. In 1955, she was hired by Pierre Balmain after he had seen Lagerfeld's coat design for the French International Wool Secretariat which he came first place in. Balmain put Lagerfeld's coat design to production. After 3 years of working at Balmain he moved on to work for Jean Patou's fashion house. Once he had spent 12 years in Paris he moved on to Italy to study art history and was introduced to Chloé. He designed collections for the brand from 1964-1983 then again from 1992
-1997. Whilst working at Chloé he also worked at Fendi which was revolutionary for the company. He used real fur in his designs which at the time was seen as an incredibly impressive thing as the animals he used in the designs were some that had never been seen before such as moles, rabbits and squirrels. Then he entered Chanel in '83, which was where he started getting known. He merged Chanel's classical designs with a modern, trendy look which is what people loved. Karl didn't want to take away any of Coco Chanel's work that's why it was important for him to include them in his collections with his own personal twist. Throughout his time at Chanel, he also worked at Fendi.
Picture of Lagerfeld from the 80s in his early years at Chanel. Picture from Chanel
Lagerfeld's shows were iconic too. They were set in some very unique places. Chanel's most iconic runway shows included Spring/Summer 2012 set in an all white, under the sea look, Meiters D'Art 2011, set at a banquet hall and Autumn-Winter 2014/15 Ready-to-Wear, set at a supermarket.
The creative director's most iconic designs included, the iconic two-piece Chanel suit, the pink ruffled dress worn by Lily-Rose Depp in the Spring 2017 Haute Couture Show, the big Hula-Hoop bag in the Spring 2013 collection and even the iconic interlocking CC logo.
Chanel supermarket runway, AW/14-15. Picture from China Daily.
After 36 years at Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld passed away in 2019 from pancreatic cancer. Rumours say, Karl left approximately 270 million USD to his cat, Choupette. Now, the creative director is French born 60 year old, Virginie Viard. Virginie continues to use classic Chanel designs but, like Lagerfeld, modernise them but still keep them classical.
Picture of Karl & Choupette. Picture from The Irish Times
Picture of the current creative director of Chanel, Virginie Viard. Picture from Vogue
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