Coco Chanel

In order to understand what motivated Liz Claiborne to become such a successful woman, it is helpful to go back her roots. Liz Claiborne was born in Brussels, Belgium on March 31st 1929, which was nine years after the Women’s Rights Movement ended in America. She had exposure to art in her childhood from her father who taught her to appreciate art and her mother who taught her to sew. Liz Claiborne spent her early years in Brussels and became a bilingual person who could speak French and English fluently. In 1939, she moved to New Orleans, Louisiana with her parents due to the threats from Nazis (Bernstein 1; “Liz Claiborne’ Biography”).

Chanel is one of the most prominent fashion brands, their cosmetic line is one that follows the brands positioning in the market, due to this it associated with being high end and luxury. This positioning has been influenced by the associations that consumers make between the brand and the founder Coco Chanel as well as drawing associations from haute-couture fashion as well as aligning the brand with the likes of the fashion scene (Chanel 2013). This brand has been positioned to exude luxury, perfection and quality and with associated high prices and simplistic but sophisticated packaging this has enabled the brand to be positioned as a high-end luxury brand (Chanel 2013).

II. Today, I am going to inform my audience about who Coco Chanel was, and her famous fashion

People often ask me, "When did you first become interested in Coco Chanel?" and if I'm honest, I was fascinated long before I started researching her biography more than a decade ago, all the way back to my earliest memories in childhood. For there on top of my mother's dressing table stood a bottle of Chanel No. 5, beyond my reach but not out of sight, and I knew from the moment I began to discern its mysterious letters and number that there was something magical to the black-and-white cipher. I'm not alone in that discovery -- Chanel has come to represent the essence of everywoman, whether in the scent of her perfume or her choice of bold red lipstick or the perfect little black dress -- but the story of Coco feels somehow entwined with

After the War Chanel returned to Paris in 1953 to find that Parisian women were obsessed with Christian Dior and the “New Look”, which is a very feminine

Though in her later life she came to be regarded one of the world's most influential designers of all time, Chanel's earlier life was far from glamorous. Coco Chanel was born sometimes in the year 1883 though she later disputed the same as her birth date (replacing it with 1893). Chanel's mother passed on when she was aged 6 years old leaving the young Chanel and four of her siblings under the care of her father. Soon after, her father put her in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns. It is here that the young Channel learnt the art of sewing something that would prove to be much helpful in her later undertakings. When she attained the age of eighteen, Chanel left the orphanage and later on, she secured a job as a seamstress. However, Chanel would occasionally put her other talent, singing, into use by performing at a cabaret. Soon, Chanel moved to Deauville where she become romantically involved with Etienne Balsan and later on became his mistress at the age of 23. It

World War II meant a decline in the economy and refraining from luxuries. The demand for supplies was a key factor in helping America win the war. Therefore, civilians were forced to sacrifice their nonessentials, with clothing and beauty products being the most difficult for women to eliminate from their lives. Therefore, women made efforts to keep fashion alive, even if it required endless creativity and thrifty tactics. Looking back on the war and how it sparked innovation and creativity, is shocking. Very few people would have expected the fashion industry to survive through World War II, let alone sky-rocket and change the way women dressed forever. Although women’s fashion was expected to fall along with the economy of World War II, the under-funded industry overcame the economic crisis against all odds. First, the pressure to conserve materials for the war guided women toward a more thrifty wardrobe. Secondly, women who took over the workforce changed their fashion styles for the sake of safety and practicality. Lastly, Cosmetics were re-designed to boost morale and allow women to express their femininity to counteract the masculine and man-like duties that women fulfilled during the war.

The 1950s clothing contributed so much to modern-day fashion. The prettier the clothes are, the more beautiful the person is. The main theme for beauty in the 1950s was femininity and refinement. During the 1950s, the runway became an important way of showing fashion. The younger buyers bought the "beat look" with flat pedal pusher shoes and the pumpkin skirt. This shows that younger people in the 1950s bought these types of clothes. Chanel made a come back in the 1950s with her cardigan jacket suits. Chanel is still worn today in the world. Chanel makes the gilt chain quilted leather handbag in 1957. Also, she made the

The French leader of the fashion frontier, Gabrielle “Coco" Chanel built an empire of fashion for women all around world, changed how society viewed women. With her boyish style, Chanel inspired women

This biography, Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life, is a secondary source text written by Lisa Chaney. Published in New York in 2011, this work aims to examine Coco Chanel’s unconventional journey from poverty to glamour, along which she helped to redefine the idea of the modern European woman. This text is intended for an audience of educated individuals with an interest in Coco Chanel and her legacy. Throughout this biography, Chaney references private letters, personal records, and interviews with Chanel’s friends and family to explore the origins of Chanel’s revolutionary ideas that influenced the European feminist movement. This source is valuable because it provides an in-depth examination of Coco Chanel’s life through analysis of new primary source evidence. Additionally, because Chaney is reflecting on Chanel’s life and influence in hindsight, she is able to link Chanel’s work with the progression of European women’s rights throughout the twentieth century, establishing cause and effect relationships. However, this source is limited because Chaney does not take an objective perspective, and, instead, aims to prove her theory that Chanel was extremely

Fast forward to Chanel’s young adult life, and you can see it wasn’t long off that she would set up shop in Paris, France in 1910, eventually expanding out to Deauville, and then Biarritz. She had started off with designing, and marketing hats which became a very successful hit amongst the fashionistas of that day. Chanel’s empire was growing exponentially, and in 1920 she expanded into the realms of couture now working in jersey which at the time was unheard of in the French fashion circle. Soon she was blurring the lines of what was acceptable, setting fashion trends instead of adhering to the routine, and was giving way to entire style genres such as the “chemise” and the “little boy” look. Her fashion statements were a gigantic contrast to what was socially acceptable, and of course Chanel fell under scrutiny over it, but she went on to create more casual, shorter, and idyllically “liberating” clothing for the day’s modern woman. In essence she was liberating women from the stuffy, confining fashions that they were used to, and giving way to a loose more relaxed style all together while maintaining it’s inherent feminine charm. Chanel was creating more than just a design, or an article of clothing, she was creating a movement that would change the way society viewed fashion in it’s entirety. (Lewis)

It wasn’t until Chanel started to create jackets which not only had the purpose of being worn closed, she created jackets that looked good opened, closed or hanging over the shoulders. She emphasized on this style by making blouses to serve the complete outfit. She was also the creator of the “Little Black Dress”, which was a relatively simple black dress made by elegant materials such as lace, tulle, weightless silk and even embroidery in a new, more tailored way. Chanel is today world known for its high quality designs and has women of the 21th century dependent on its classical style (Rennolds Milbank 120-121).

Coco Chanel, born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France, influenced 1920s fashion greatly through her trademark pieces such as “little black dress” and jersey suits and many more. These key fashion pieces are still very popular in our current day time in women’s fashion. Before Chanel became well known, most women would wear corsets that would leave them feeling stiff to give them more of a hour glass look as well as skirts with long hems that would reach the floor. Chanel went past the social boundaries of most women, and created different and diverse pieces. She disregarded societies idea of

This essay will be considering the historical development of haute couture by analysing Charles Frederick Worth’s (father of haute couture) key factors in the success of haute Couture. I will then discuss Coco Chanel’s thriving impact on haute couture as well as ready-to-wear caused by the second world war. Saint Laurent’s drift to ready-to-wear and the high street fashion system will also be discussed in order to answer if haute couture is relevant in fashion today. The books I will be analysing and referencing are ‘A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20th Century’ by Bonnie English, ‘Couture’ by Ruth Lynam, ‘How Fashion Works’ by Gavin Waddell. Which will thoroughly breakdown the evolution and historical development of fashion by cultural, economic, environmental and social changes to finally come into a conclusion.

August 19, 1883, Saumur, France (“Coco Chanel”): this is the date of when Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born. While Chanel’s aesthetic in her later years was glamour, glitz, and glam, her early years were not the same. Chanel's mother died when she was twelve, and due to her peddling father, she and her two other sisters went into foster care (Collage). There she was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew (“Coco Chanel”), a skill that will benefit her later in life. Before Chanel entered the fashion world, she was briefly a nightclub singer. This is where she coined the nickname “Coco” and met a very important man to her career (“Coco Chanel”). This man was the wealthy business man Arthur “boy” Cape, and