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HER BIRTH
Her original name is Gabrielle Chanel, and her pseudonym is Coco Chanel. She was born in the House of Charity in Samur, France. Her parents were called Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle. -
HER MOTHER'S DEATH AND THE ABANDONMENT OF HIS DAD
Her mother Jeanne died when Coco had 12 years. And her dad took Coco and her sisters to the Roman orphanage of Aubazine in Corrèze, and her brothers to to a cruel peasant family. -
1904
At 18 years she was transferred a religious boarding school of Notre Dame, and she was until 21 years. She started working as a seamstress and learned to make hats in a haberdashery in Moulins, and she combined it with her performances in La Rotonde, a café-concert. At that time they started calling her Coco. -
HER FIRST LOVE
He fell in love with Étienne Balsan, a wealthy young man with which
she had a six-year relationship. He invited her to a castle of Royallieu, where his lover also lived. Coco knew the luxury and leisure of the time. -
HER FIRST STEPS AS A DESIGNER
She began to develop her talent as a designer in Paris, as a pastime she had made hats for her friends in Royallieu, simple but with grace and ordered a trouser to the tailor of the town that she had designed herself. -
HER FIRST BUSINESS
A friend of Etienne who played polo, called Arthur 'Boy' Capel and Coco had a mutual attraction. Etienne decided to lend him the ground floor of his bachelor flat in Paris. Coco moved and started her hat business. -
CHANEL MODELS
In 1910 he opened his first Chanel Models, at 21 Rue Cambon in Paris, where he sold hats. -
HER SUCCESS IN FASHION AND A NEW OPENING
In 1913 she opened a fashion house in the resort of Deauville, where she also sold innovative women's clothing, which included simple and functional models, and eliminated the corsets of the Belle Epoque. -
A HARD YEAR
Coco became pregnant with Boy but had a miscarriage and became sterile.
Coco Julia's sister died and Coco adopted her son André Palasse. -
HER BREAK WITH BOY AND THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
After the First World War, Boy decided to break up with Coco to marry an aristocrat. Coco designed a pair of white satin pants that became very popular. There was an outbreak of female liberation with the end of the war. Coco bought La Milanaise, she cut her hair like a boy and many women imitated her. And Boy went back to look for Coco. -
OTHER HARD YEAR
Coco decided to leave the premises number 21 Cambon Street to expand and follow it until 31 of the same street, as it was very successful. Coco designed the wedding dress of her sister Antoinette, but committed suicide and did not redesign wedding dresses. Boy died in a traffic accident when he turned in a curve, during the Christmas day to visit his wife and Coco suffered much loss. -
A SPECIAL YEAR
In the 20s, Coco was well known, and her style was very famous and important. Coco moved to the villa Bel Respiro, in Garches. She met Igor Stravinski, a 20th-century musical composer. Igor and his family went to live with Coco. And the two of them became lovers, he gave her an icon he had brought from Russia and she helped him pay for some of his projects. Coco met Pablo Picasso and they became great friends. -
IGOR VS DIMITRI
Coco became jealous of Igor's relationship with his wife, and began a relationship with Duke Dimitri, a Russian nobleman.
Igor and Dimitri had a fight for Coco, since Igor was jealous, and Igor left the house with his family because Dimitri won the fight. Dimitri stayed with Coco and gave her the pearls of the Romanovs. -
CHANEL No.5
Coco decided to copy the jewel and sent them to the market, also introduced the Chanel Suit, raised the skirt from the ankle to above the knee. And he extended his boutique on 31 Rue Cambon, to numbers 27 and 29, and opened a branch in Cannes. He had one of the most important events of his life, he launched his perfume Chanel No. 5, a perfume that consists of 80 ingredients and is a classic today. -
A RUPTURE AND A NEW LOVER
Dimitri and Coco browe up when I met Audrey Emery, a rich American heiress. Coco went back moved again to an apartment of the exclusive No. 29 of Faubourg St. Honoré. She had a new romance with the poet Pierre Reverdy. Although he was married, he felt devoted to Coco. She helped him with his projects and his feelings for Chanel were reflected in the dedications of his works. -
A NEW LOVE
At a party of her friend Vera Bate, Coco met Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster.
They fell in love. He wanted to have an heir because he had two daughters. -
LONDON
She opened a Chanel House in London. -
LITTLE BLACK DRESS
Coco transformed the black, in the "little black dress" a great success at that time as currently. -
IN LOVE WITH WESTMINSTER
Coco bought Villa La Pausa, a summer house on the French Riviera. She was very much in love, dreamed of marriage and wanted to give him the son he loved so much. He did not want anyone to know his poor past and made his brothers rentiers when it came to giving him his pensions. -
A YEAR OF HOPE AND A LOSS
He tried to have the son that wanted Westminster but the miracle that she wanted never happened. He did not know about his infertility. On August 17, 1929, Coco and Misia, a Russian intimate friend of Coco and Coco, visited Diaghilev a friend on his deathbed who was seriously ill with diabetes. Hes line of clothing prospered in the midst of chaos. -
A HUMILIATION
The duke married with Loelia Mary Ponsonby and he took the bride to Coco to present her, and she said: "There have been many duchesses of Westminster, but Chanel there is only one". -
HOLLYWOON
Coco was hired by MGM and they paid her a million dollars to travel twice a year to Hollywood to dress her stars. She was received by the great Greta Garbo. Cocó dressed Greta, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn. The painter Salvador Dalí lived six months in his house accompanied by Gala. Coco was Dalí's lover "to annoy Gala". -
PAUL IRIBE
Coco met Paul Iribe, a French-Basque designer, who designed jewelry for Chanel. They became lovers even though he was married, but his wife went to America with her children. Coco had the idea of creating clothes with stretch fabrics. -
LA PAUSA
Coco rented an apartment at the Ritz hotel, where she was installed. In the summer, Iribe divorced and announced the commitment. On September 21, Iribe said "He loved so much that "La Pausa" would like to die there." -
ANOTHER IMPORTANT LOSS
Paul died after a heart attack at a tennis match in front of Coco and she suffered much loss. -
AN UNEXPECTED ACT
She decided to close the house and leave open the boutique. -
A NEW LOVE
In the middle of the Second World War, she met a new love Hans Gunther Von Dincklage, a German attaché before the war. They lived three years of love. -
GOODBYE PARIS, HELLO SWITZERLAND
In 1944, she was arrested under the accusation of collaboration with the Nazis.
In 1945, she left Paris and went to Switzerland. -
HER RETURN A PARIS
She returned to Paris. Coco reopened her fashion house, because she was bored. -
HER LAST YEARS
At 80 years old, she was millionaire but she was still working. She was a lonely woman and her fragance was numer one in sales. She said: "I don't complain about anything, because I lived intensely!" -
HER DEATH
The 10th of January of 1971, she had left with her friend Claude Baillen to take a walk; when theycame back Coco stretched in her bed of the Hotel Ritz and she said: "Look, that's how she dies" and she died.