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Coco Chanel
Some information about a woman who changed the fashion of face forever, Coco Chanel. -
Early life
Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in 1883 to Eugénie Jeanne Devolle Chanel,known as Jeanne,a laundrywoman in the charity hospital run by the Sisters of Providence (a poorhouse) in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. She was Jeanne's second child with Albert. He was an itinerant street vendor who peddled work clothes and undergarments.The family resided in rundown lodgings. In 1884, he married Jeanne Devolle, persuaded to do so by her family who had "united, effectively, to pay Albert. -
About Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was born at 19 August 1883 and died at 10 January 1971. She was a french fashion designer, Nazi spy and bussiness woman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she 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. Chanel extended her influence beyond clothing, jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. -
Personal life and early career
Having learned to sew during her six years at Aubazine, Chanel found employment as a seamstress. When not sewing, she sang in a cabaret frequented by cavalry officers. Chanel made her stage debut singing at a cafe-concert in a Moulins pavilion, La Rotonde. The money earned was what they managed to accumulate when the plate was passed. It was at this time that Gabrielle acquired the name "Coco" when she spent her nights singing in the cabaret, often the song, "Who Has Seen Coco?". -
Beginnings of a Fashion Empire
Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan, who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him for one of his wealthier friends, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel’s first fashion venture. Opening her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910, Chanel started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes She counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends. -
Relationships and a Marriage Proposal
Beginning in 1920, Chanel had a short-lived relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky. Chanel had attended the notorious world premiere of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” in 1913. Around 1923, she met the wealthy Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, aboard his yacht. The two started a decades-long relationship. In response to his marriage proposal, which she turned down, she reportedly said, “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!” -
World War II
The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on Chanel's company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led her to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops. After the war, Chanel left Paris, spending some years in Switzerland in a sort of exile. She also lived at her country house in Roquebrune for a time. -
Life as Nazi Agent
During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a Nazi military officer. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, which also operated as German military headquarters.Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel’s behalf.While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country. -
Death
Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. She never marrie.A little more than a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins at her company to continue the Chanel legacy. Today her namesake company is held privately by the Wertheimer family and continues to thrive, believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.
