The Coco Chanel Biography

Coco Chanel(Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel) born August 19, 1883, grew up with her sister in an orphanage.

Her mother died when she was only 6 years old. Even though she still had her father, he was unable to deal with a family situation of 5 children.

Even at the young age of 6, Gabrielle already had a lively imagination of what she wanted to wear.

The simplicity of her orphanage attire later became the inspiration for the simple black Chanel dress with the imitation string of pearls or with a white camellia, her favorite flower.

Gabrielle learned her seamstress skills in Moulin, a city and village just a few hours away from Paris.

While living there, she also loved to go out to a local pub where she would sing her favorite song “Qui qu’ a vu Coco dans le trocadero?” which translates to “Who has seen Coco in the Trocadero?” This earned her the nickname of Coco.

Coco’s first big love was Etienne Balsan, who introduced her to the sophisticated culture of Paris.

Capel turned out to be her true love, who helped her start her first business, a hat shop in Paris and a 2nd one in Deauville. Sadly, Coco lost her true love to an accident in 1919.

In 1921, Coco Chanel launched her first perfume; N°5. To this very day Chanel N°5 is the top selling perfume.

In 1931 Hollywood movie producer Samuel Goldwyn persuaded Coco to become Katharine Hepburn's and Grace Kelly's personal stylist.

Coco later moved temporarily to America where Greta Garbo and Marlène Dietrich became her regular clients.

In 1954, she moved back to France to start her own business. She was known to rule with an iron hand but her business was a great success. In 1971 Coco died alone in her apartment.

The impact of Coco Chanel in the fashion industry was enormous.

Her ideas, such as the use of jersey, the blouse, short skirts, women's sports wear, and short hair, to name a few, were revolutionary to the fashion world.

She even introduced black as a color and 'Chanel lipstick red'.

Chanel is one of the rare fashion houses that is still in private hands.

Head designer Karl Lagerfeld took over the company in 1983.

He cooperates with fashion models such as Inès de la Fréssange, Claudia Shiffer and Australian actress Nicole Kidman.

Thanks to Articlebase.com, original source of article.

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