Coco Chanel: a Fashion Icon Legacy Essay example

C. A lot of women know Chanel and they are fascinated of Chanel products, but how many people know about Coco Chanel, the first designer of Chanel?

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

Chanel revolutionized the perfume and jewelry industry. Chanel created Chanel Number Five in 1924. By 1925 Chanel perfume was also being distributed on a worldwide scale. Chanel’s perfumes bring a significant percent of a profit for the company, more than its sales in other in other areas combined. Today Chanel Number Five sells a bottle every day thirty seconds. Costume jewelry was another item that became popular due to Chanel’s influence in the early 1920’s. She was the first designer to gain the social acceptability of wearing fake jewels. She said, “Costume jewelry is not made to give women an aura of wealth but to make them beautiful” (Picardie 76). Her jewelry and perfume lines are still best sellers in the jewelry and perfume market.

Born into dire poverty and aged 11 when her mother passed on, Coco Chanel has come to be recognized by some as the epitome of success in the fashion industry. Indeed, she has such a huge following of admirers that in some instances, fans have made pilgrimages to one of her preserved apartments in Paris. As Tracy, a professed "timeless fan" of Chanel notes, "Chanel's fashion spirit will forever remain immortal." Further, her timeless designs also continue to be hugely popular today.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was a very determined and passionate designer, who wanted to make women feel more proud about themselves. Chanel was born in 1883, but she did not take up designing until after World War 1 (Heilbrunn Timeline N.P.). Christian Dior designed a post-war women’s clothing line that Chanel felt was unworthy of the new feminist mindset (Heilbrunn Timeline N.P.). She accomplished so much with her new determination, so much that she was obsessed with the thought of giving the female population a new-found self-esteem. Chanel’s best artices were handbags, jewelry, shoes, and the Chanel Suit (Heilbrunn Timeline N.P.).

Chanel lied about her childhood experiences in order to avoid social prejudice that accompanied the situations in her upbringing. Chanel was introduced into the world of art in 1908 after moving in with her lover Etienne Balsan. It was in his home that she began designing hats, which would then lead to her initial success in the world of fashion. Chanel moved on in her

In 1919, Chanel opened her first fashion house in Paris. She introduced her world renowned perfume, Chanel No. 5, in 1922. This perfume is still one of the most famous perfumes today; it was a real turning point for her career. The perfume was a crucial part of her empire that employed about 3,500 people around the 1920s, which was its prime time. During world war 2, Chanel closed down her couture house but stayed living in Paris with a nazi officer.

5.Surprisingly, the perfume was named number five because it was the fifth perfume scent that was displayed to Coco and the creating process. In the same time period Coco had introduced the little black and the infamous Chanel suit. With the little black dress was seen as a scandalous dress. Coco took the color black which usually represented the mourning of a death and made an evening wear color for the risk taking woman. In the year of 1925, house of Chanel introduced the Chanel suit. This suit portrayed A calling lose jacket and fitted skirt that had similar elements from a men's suit, but being part of the Chanel collection still had a sense of comfortability She went on to create another perfume in 1922 which was titled No.22. Gabrielle went on to create many more perfumes and add a cosmetic collection. Alongside of her couture line, Coco had many side projects designing clothing for different events and important people. She had designed and created many costumes for the play Orphee written by Jean Cocteau. She also created costumes for the Ballets

She is very famous for her timeless designs. Some of the things that she is famous for are the little black dress, chanel no. 5, and her trademark suites, all of these products were and are designed for the strong women of the world . Her business is still one of the most famous and recognisable. She let women be comfortable and look good at the same time. Chanels life is full of controversies.

Coco Chanel left a mark in our history that greatly contributed to what our societies’ ideals are today. In spite of enduring traumatic periods in her life, she was able to change ideals of women for the better, invent several fashion pieces, and change society

CoCo Chanel had many achievements in the fashion world. This was brought forth by her creative leadership. CoCo was an orphan and originally learned how to sew there. She created a product that was attractive and desired. CoCo managed to be a wealthy businesswoman in a time where there were few opportunities for her to succeed. CoCo Chanel had enough confidence in herself to rely on her own judgement. This can be to blame for her success. CoCo was a leader instead of a follower. She did this by leading women away from impractical clothing (corsets), and instead introduces clothing that emphasized comfort, functionality and high style. CoCo used these skills and others to break through the male barrier in women's fashion. She is also responsible

Chanel opened her first shop in 1910. She started out selling hats and then began making clothes. One chilly day, she introduced to the world the “Little Black Dress.” Before this, the color black in clothing was for funerals and represented gloomy times. She had so many compliments, that she decided to make this another business of hers.

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)

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

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