The Invisible Mentor

Women of Wisdom: From an Orphanage to a Global Enterprise, the Story of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, French Fashion Designer

August 17th, 2011 |

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Gabriele “Coco” Chanel created a fashion revolution by consistently departing from the norm. Just after World War I when women wore corsets and other uncomfortable clothing, Chanel introduced simple, yet elegant and functional clothing. In 1926, she introduced the “Little black dress,” at a time when black clothing was associated with funerals. In 1954, at the age of seventy, when Chanel made a comeback after a long absence – 15 years – though the French ridiculed her new clothing line, Americans embraced the comfortable styles. One source says that, “As a young woman she earned the name “Coco” from the word cocotte, a French word for a woman of loose morals,” another says, “Chanel sang during evening concerts at a fashionable cafe called La Rotonde. It is believed that her rendition of the song “Qui qu’a vu Coco dans le Trocadéro” earned her the nickname “Coco.””

Name: Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel

Birth Date: August 1883 – January 1971

Job Functions: Fashion & Jewellery Designer

Fields: Fashion

Known For: Little black dress, Chanel no. 5 perfume, and the Chanel suit

Inspired By: While she was in the orphanage, she loved novels by Pierre Decourelle whose heroines were intelligent, independent, and had a flair for fashion and had beautiful clothing.

Because her father was a traveling salesman, Chanel was born in a poorhouse in Saumur, France. When she was 11 years old her mother died. Her father was unable to cope and left his five children not to be seen by them again. Chanel and her sisters were placed in an orphanage run by nuns when she was 12. While at the orphanage, she learned to sew and when she left, the nuns found her a job at the boutique House of Grampayre where she worked as a seamstress assisting Monsieur Henri Desboutin. Chanel was very good at what she did at the boutique, and customers would specifically ask for her.

While working at the House of Grampayre, she also held a part-time job working at a tailor shop where she met many soldiers who frequented La Rotonde, a local cafe. She went to La Rotonde with them and that’s where she met Etienne Balsan, a soldier and horse breeder from a wealthy French family. In 1906, Balsan invited Chanel to his horse farm; she accepted and decided to stay there on his vast estate. While there she met an affluent crowd, and she learned how to ride expertly. Chanel designed and made the most beautiful hats for herself that the affluent women she met wanted the same designs for themselves. This was great publicity for Chanel because the tabloids took note and wrote about the styles.

In 1909, Balsan allowed her to establish a millinery shop in his Paris apartment. While in Paris, Chanel met Englishman Arthur Capel, one of Balsan’s friends and had an affair with him. Capel gave her the financial backing she needed to open a boutique at 21 Rue Cambon in 1910. Chanel did the rest, and by 1912, celebrities and actresses were wearing her hats – she had found success. In 1913, while on vacation with Capel, he encouraged her to open a boutique. Chanel took his advice and added a line of accessories, and designed beachwear and sports wear. At the time, jersey was used to make underwear, but Chanel made it chic by creating simple gray and navy dresses, quite an innovation at the time. Her new designs liberated women from corsets and other uncomfortable clothing creating a revolution in the fashion industry. The affluent loved her designs.

Incidentally, Chanel was able to repay the loan from Capel in 1918, before his tragic death in 1919. She was financially independent like the heroines depicted in the novels she read as a teenager while living in the orphanage.

Chanel met famed perfumer, Ernest Beaux. At the time perfumes had a flowery scent, so she collaborated with him, and Beaux presented Chanel with seven final perfume samples. She liked sample number five and hence the name Chanel No. 5 which Chanel began selling in 1923, and is now world famous.

In 1925, she introduced the classic Chanel suit, “collarless cardigan jacket with tight fitting sleeves with braid trim, matched with a plain but graceful skirt.” The following year, she turned the industry upside down again with the “little black dress,” using a colour that was traditionally associated with funerals.

At the start of World War II in 1939, Chanel dismissed all her staff and closed House of Chanel, but continued to sell Chanel No. 5. Nazi forces took over France, and Chanel got romantically involved with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German diplomat and suspected Gestapo agent during the occupation. When France was liberated, Chanel was accused and labelled a collaborator. She was arrested but not charged. In 1946, Chanel and von Dincklage moved to Lausanne, Switzerland where she remained in exile for eight years. Incidentally, she was Charlie Chaplin’s neighbour there.

In 1954, at the age of 70, Chanel staged her comeback in France, but she was not very well received. The media ostracized her because she picked up where she left off 15 years ago with fashion. However, American women embraced her designs and the American press supported her. Life magazine in the US did a four-page spread of her designs and the following month, one of Chanel’s design for a navy blue suit was on the cover of French Vogue magazine. By 1956, she was back in the fashion game.

Chanel was such an icon that a Broadway musical titled, “Coco” appeared in 1969 starring Katharine Hepburn.

Philanthropy

Chanel collaborated with Pablo Picasso on several theatre and ballet projects.
Became a patron of the Paris art scene.
Financed Les Ballet Russes as well as designed the costumes for Sergi Diaghilev’s company.
Allowed Igor Stravinsky an influential composer to stay in her villa in 1920 so that he could complete his Concertina for String Quartet and write symphonies for his wind instruments.

Some of Chanel’s Steps to Success

Acquired influence before she acquired money.
Chanel was an astute businesswoman and publicity savvy; she attracted clients – Emilienne d’Alençon, Gabrielle Dorziat, Baroness de Rothschild, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Catherine Deneuve – who knew how to draw media to them.
Chanel’s lovers helped her to launch her business, Capel more than anyone else, but she repaid him in full.
Trendsetters wore her clothing, which was great publicity for her.
In 1917, Misia Sert introduced Chanel into high society and she was an instant success.
Coco Chanel used a technique, which Steve Jobs now uses at Apple, build it and convince them that they should come. She created the “little black dress,” made jersey chic, introduced bell-bottomed pants among other things. Chanel also created Chanel No. 5, a very different smelling perfume from what was already out there.

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Works Cited/Referenced

Encyclopedia for Women

Women in World History

Fashion, Costume and Culture

Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion

Business Leader Profiles for Students

Contemporary Fashion, 2^nd Edition

Great Lives: A Century of Obituaries, The Times

Encyclopedia of Popular Culture

Encyclopedia of World Biography