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COCO CHANEL

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Contents

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1 2 3 4 5

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Early
Struggles

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Youth & Success
Tr FAme Comeback Influence

An orphan dressed A milliner becomes Chanel blossoms A style rebirth occurs Coco Chanel
in black comes of “Coco”, the singer from ‘poor chic’ against all odds. lives on in brand that
age in a convent. and boutique owner. to haute couture exemplifies elegance
celebrity. & excellence.
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little black dress, 1926

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Coco in her youth

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Coco Chanel, born raised by Aubazine nuns. France, was still in the middle
Gabrielle Chanel on August While she spent tremendous ages....

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19th, 1883, in Saumur, efforts throughout her life to
France, would not only conceal the secrets of her ...but the twentieth
become one of the most youth, she owed much of century was knocking

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innovative fashion designers her initial craft to the convent at her door.
of her time, but also one of she was raised in. She was
the most influential women made to wear all black by
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of the 20th Century. the nuns while she learned to
master the art of sewing.
In true rags to riches
fashion, Chanel came In those solace walls
from humble beginnings. she plied her needle and
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After her mother died when learned the ways of silence:

Chanel was very young, austerity, good manners and
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her father left her to be poise. Aubazine in Corrèze,

 &Success
Early Struggles

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Chanel left the convent several influential people wear was initially looked
and became a milliner in during this time. One of down upon, but soon her

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Moulins, a garrison town. them, Boy Chapel, became simple tailored outfits were
She would also sing in bars her friend, financial backer adopted by Parisian women.
know as cafe-concerts, and eventually her lover. Chanel had invented a

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where she became known He immediately recognized sports style for women. In
as “Coco”. She gained a her hat making talent 1913, she opens her first
hat sketch, 1912 name for herself as well as and became her biggest boutique, “Gabrielle Chanel”
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several admirers. advocate to start her in Deauville that featured
own business. jersey clothes. These clothes
She moved to the estate not only revolutionized the
of Etienne Balsan, one She started by transforming way women felt about their
of her admirers, who was her apartment into a studio, bodies, but their very lifestyles.
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an equestrian enthusiast. begging her girlfriends to

Chanel flourished in his wear her creations as a favor. It was an instant success...
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environment and met Her “sailor inspired” sports

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Coco with friend in front of her Boy Chapel and Coco Gabrielle Dorizat in a
first boutique in Deauville. Chanel in 1912. Chanel hat, spring boarded
Coco’s early success.

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hat sketch, 1916
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“To be irreplaceable, you have to be different.”
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deauville, 1913
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sports costume, chanel’s
1924 layered suit,
1933

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chanel’s
vogue debut,
1920

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classic black silk
chanel, evening dress,
1923 1930

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3 Fame
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In 1915, Chanel opens her first couture house in Biarritz. Her fame is beginning
to skyrocket. She confirms her style of natural seduction. Her flowing comfortable
designs allows ease of movement and rejects the stuffy ostentatious style of the

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19th Century. In 1921, she opens what would become the famous showroom at
Rue Cambon and launches her first fragrance, Channel No. 5.

Chanel develops an intense amount of fashion innovations at this time. She is

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designing fashion for plays and film, costume jewelry and the ‘little black dress’, which
American Vogue declares as the ‘new uniform for the modern woman’. She launches
the reign of the super model and at the height of her success employs 4,000 workers.
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The fashionista was also a marketing genius before her time. Chanel’s image and
fame belonged to her logo (not yet called this): The letters, the typography, the

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gold, the black and the white; the use of repetition, which anticipated Pop Art; the
perfecting of a grammar and vocabulary which belonged to her alone and her

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intense femininity with a total lack of sentimentality made her one of the chosen few
who shaped an entire era when everything was being reinvented.
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Gloria Swanson in Chanel Boar hunting with First Lady, Jacqueline Between Salvador Dali Marilyn Monroe’s famous ad
Wardrobe for Night or Never. Winston Churchill. Kennedy, in Chanel. and Christian Bérard. for Chanel No. 5
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coco chanel on the eve

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of her comeback,
1954
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Comeback
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After the death of a second managed sleeves, silk
lover, Chanel closed her blouses, gold chains, wrap-
fashion house in 1939. She over skirts, quilted shoulder

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retired. Considered a bags leaving hands free, flat pink tweed suit, 1954
has-been by her rivals, shoes with a bar across and
Chanel emerged from a black toe to shorten the
retirement in 1954 at the foot and jewel-like buttons

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age of 71. Her first attempt that cascaded down the
led only to an icy reception. front of the garment. The
To try her luck a second ‘Chanel Look’ swept across
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Chanel’s elaborate brooches
made costume jewelry an

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Classic two-tone shoe that created
an optical illusion of a smaller foot.
Chanel’s classic hand bag
becomes a staple of her collection.
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integral part of fashion.

required a great deal of self the Atlantic and reigned

assurance, as her fragrance again. In 1957 she is
empire was on the line. awarded a fashion oscar for
being ‘the most influential
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Yet Chanel reinvented style female designer of the

again: Soft jackets with twentieth century’.
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no interlining, wonderfully

“Failed innovation is painful. A revival of it is sinful. ”

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Influence
From the top:
Chanel becomes a new name in
excellence in cosmetics.

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Karl Lagarfield at the famous
Rue Cambon showroom.

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The packaging genius of

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Chanel No. 5 gets inducted
Coco Chanel, a key and conquered the fashion into the Museum of Modern
Art in New York in 1959.
figure in her time lives on magazine pages of the

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in Chanel and continues early eighties. He yielded all
to be an on-going story. the rules of style that made Sarah Jessica Parker brings the
excitement of Chanel to a new
It continues through each Chanel famous, borrowing a generation with her fashionista

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role in Sex & the City.
new season, through each slogan from Groethe: “Make
new carefully developed a better future by developing
The Chanel machine rages on in
collection, each new elements from the past.” fresh takes on timeless classics.
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perfume and new beauty
product that is stamped In 2002, Karl Lagarfield
with the Chanel logo and is awarded a Lifetime
known the world over. Achievement award from
the CFDA for maintaining
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In 1983, Chanel was quality and excellence at

relaunched under the The House of Chanel.
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leadership of Karl Lagarfield

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“White matches everything, as does black. They are absolute beauty, perfect harmony.”

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 References

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Baudot, Fanćois. Chanel.
Assouline Publishing, New York. 2003.

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Helleu, Jacques. Jacques Helleu & Channel.
Éditions de La Martiniére, Paris. 2005.

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Lifetime Movies. Coco Chanel. Andy Warhol’s 1985 silk screen series of the famous
No. 5 Channel perfume Bottle.
Copyright 2008 Lifetime Entertainment Service.
“Fashion is at once both
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Madsen, Axel. Chanel: A Woman of Her Own.
Henry Holt & Company, LLC, New York 1990.
caterpillar by day and butterfly
Tierney, Tom. Chanel Fashion Review: Paper Dolls in Full Color.
Dover Publications, Inc., New York. 1986.
by night. Dresses should both
crawl and fly. A butterfly doesn’t
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go to the market and a caterpillar

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does not go to the market!”