COCO CHANEL

                                                   19th August 1883 --- 10th January 1971

http://www.chanel.com/en_GB/?gclid=CjwKCAjw_47YBRBxEiwAYuKdw7l58vwbyv5tB0sOmbz7vu0IejzecLe_653e-A5cMlATD2OYMM10EBoCpawQAvD_BwE

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and business woman. She was the founder and namesake of the Chanel brand.
(All information is from Wikipedia.)

Chanel was credited in the post-World War I era with liberating women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularizing  a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing, realizing her design aesthetic in jewellery, handbags and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel no.5, has become an icon product. She is the only fashion designer listed in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th Century. Chanel designed her famed interlocked - cc monogram, meaning Coco Chanel, using it since the 1920s.

Gabrielle was born in 1883 to an unmarried mother and a peddling father (a poor family). Her parents eventually married and had five children who survived --- two boys and three girls --- who lived crowded into a one-room lodging in the town of Brive - la - Gaillarde. When her mother died, Gabrielle and her sisters were sent to a convent which also doubled as an orphanage. It was hear that she learnt to sew.

Gabrielle found employment as a seamstress and when not sewing, she sang in a Cabaret. It was at this time that she realized that a serious stage career was not in her future.
After a "few romances", Chanel began an affair with Capel, a wealthy member of the English upper-class, who installed her in an apartment in Paris and financed her first shops. Chanel had hopes for their relationship but Capel was never faithful to her. Their affair lasted nine years.
Chanel began designing hats and became a licensed milliner in 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris, named Chanel Modes.
In 1918, Chanel purchased the entire building at 31 rue Cambon and in 1921, she opened what may be considered an early incantation of the fashion boutique, featuring clothes, hats and accessories, later expanding to offer jewellery and fragrance. By 1927, Chanel owned five properties on the rue Cambon, encompassing buildings numbered 23 to 31. Chanel worked for more than twenty years to gain full control of Perfums Chanel.

During the course of time, Chanel was introduced to the British aristocracy, and even tot he Duke of Westminster and the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII. When asked why she did not marry the Duke of Westminster, Chanel is supposed to have said : "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. there is only one Chanel."
In 1931, Chanel was introduced to Samuel Goldwyn and designed some costumes for the screen. For the sum of a million dollars, Goldwyn brought her to Hollywood twice a year to design costumes for MGM stars, including Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich who also became private clients.

 The Chanel couture was a lucrative business enterprise, by 1935 employing 4,000 people.
Chanel died in 1971, at the Hotel Ritz. She had had several romances but had never married, so most of her estate went to her nephew.

Chanel's work encompassed a new style, clothes, jewellery, perfume and handbags --- all of which are still popular today as Chanel is still holding It's own in 2018.