COCO CHANEL

What makes a strong woman is hardship, it can handcraft an amazing woman, not in all cases but it Coco Chanel’s case for sure. Starting off, Chanel was was already dealt some very unfortunate cards, but she didn’t let it defeat her, she let in fuel her. She probably had a more traumatic time in the first twenty years 

After the passing of her mother, Chanel’s father promptly left all that was remaining of his family. That it is traumatic. 

Despite all of the odds being stacked against her, Chanel still was a huge success, but that doesn’t mean that there was no more hardship coming her way.

Starting with the fact that when she dropped her first fragrances, she enlisted the help of two business men named Théophile Bader from a popular department store at the time, and Pierre Wertheimer from the “Bourjois cosmetics company”(Britannica) The two found themselves trying to con Chanel in their contracts. Between the three Chanel was only receiving ten percent of the royalties in the deal, from a perfume that literally had her name on it. Chanel fought long and hard in court filing lawsuit after lawsuit trying to get back in power of her own name, at least more that 10% worth of power. She was unfortunately not able to increase her stake in regards to the perfume, and regardless of the percentage she still received a large profit from the fragrances.

Another thing that Chanel was faced with was her having no choice but to close her stores and warehouses from 1945 to 1954. World War II broke out in 1939, and Germany soon decided to occupy France, and it became dangerous to remain open for a number of reasons. She closed five separate boutiques for this reason.

Coco Chanel was a bonafide feminist. She stood up for what she believed in, she went out and accomplished any goals she wished to fulfill and that was the type of energy the world needed to turn over a new leaf a begin a new era of respect and equilibrium between (white) men and women. 

Chanel showed women that it was more than okay, but better to be comfortable while you look and feel like your best version of yourself at the same time. Chanel brought men’s fashion to women’s fashion. Making it “normal” to wear pants, instead of big puffy uncomfortable skirts, sweat shirts instead of blouses, etc. She gave people a new lease on life, showed them that it’s okay to be yourself, and that it won’t stop the earth from spinning if you break a social norm.

The women’s suit, as normal as the idea may seem to us today, was unheard of before she single handedly brought it to life, with her own name, with her own brain, she thought of it, she made it, and then she put it out into the world and those women ate it up. As you can tell they’re still around today, obviously not as popular as they once were, but they still carry the same essence, and that is the essence of an elegant, respectable, business woman and I think that's the kind of message Coco Chanel wanted to send with her clothes. 

I genuinely believe that Coco Chanel helped women become more comfortable in her time period. If people today are killing themselves trying to satisfy some crazy idea of “perfect,” I could only image what kind of extreme measures where being taking in a time where women woke up every single day and laced up a corset as tight as they could and kept them on for their entire day. The lack of air alone... Chanel came out with tops that you simply just slip on, and pants! 

Before Coco Chanel came on the scene, women got dressed with one single intention in mind, to please the men who will see them. Wearing their clothes tight and craving an “S-shape” from their bodies. They used corsets to do this along with those giant hoop skirts. As we know good and well today, those pieces are not good for women's health. They were made by men who didn’t care about the ribs that are being pushed down by those corsets, they only care about how much they could potentially push a woman’s boobs up. Our priorities are not the same.  

Women from this time were meant to be “snatched” at any point or they would be seen as less than, and no one wants to feel that way. There is actual proof that if you wear a corset tight enough, for a long enough time, you can leave serious, even fatal long term damage to your body. This wasn’t a concern at the time and it could just be because no one knew the truth yet, but the fact that even one person did that, makes it that much more likely that it’s been done before, and that would essentially women killing or hurting themselves to impress men.

At this time, women were more of an accessory to men than anything else, they figured that they weren’t capable of much else. Women were unheard and unrespected. They weren’t offered those kind of clothes because they didn’t need them, they weren’t going to the office, into or work. No one was dressing that was because they had no where to go dressed like that, they didn't need respectable clothing like that because they weren’t being respected. 

About three years after opening her first shop, selling hats, Chanel Modes, in Coco Chanel opened her second and took a shot in the clothing industry. She put out a collection unlike anything else that was out at the time. She sold “simple sportswear, such as jersey sweaters” (Britannica) As simple as that may seem to us today, it was unthinkable before she had done it. It was quite literally a cultural reset. She changed the way women had seen their bodies, she made it okay to be comfortable and feel good about themselves at the same time. Everyone, including the most influential, public figures at the time, loved the line and it was an immediate success. By the year 1915, she was fully established and respected in her industry. That same year, she officially opened her first “couture house” in Biarritz, France. This was soon followed by a second in Paris in the year 1918, on the same street as her very first store.

The 1920’s were very eventful for the Chanel brand. At this point, the company’s net worth was already millions of dollars, with that money Chanel continued to expand her company, hiring more workers, and selling more products including jewelry, makeup and perfume. In 1921, she debuted her first fragrance called “Chanel N°5,” which was brewed by Ernest Beaux, apparently it’s number five “because it was the fifth scent presented to mademoiselle Chanel.” (Inside Chanel) The release was a huge success, including “a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents that was more complex and mysterious than the single-scented perfumes then on the market,” it was adored by everyone. The next year, she released her second fragrance, calling it, “Chanel N°22”, named after its birth year, 1922. This release resulted in yet another hit with the public.  

The remainder of the decade was just as interesting for Chanel. In the year 1924, Coco Chanel stepped out of her comfort zone several times again, including finding her bearings in the makeup industry. Dropping a collection of lip colors and face powders that turned out to be extremely popular are profitable for the brand. There were a total of three more fragrances released, including Chanel Gardénia in 1925, Bois Des Iles in 1926, and Cuir De Russia in 1927, each design more sleek and innovative than the last.

The 1930’s was when Chanel was at the top of the game. The brand moved to creating clothing for these Hollywood actresses in their movies, getting the brand the exposure it has been craving, the global kind. I would assume the next collection the brand released was tailored for its new consumer population of rich famous women from Hollywood, because it was full of stunning diamond pieces, necklaces, bracelets and headpieces. By 1935, Coco Chanel was a famous designer, employing 4,000 people and owning five different Paris boutiques.

Coco Chanel was born in Saumur, France in 1883, with the name Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. Although her later life was very luxurious, the beginning of her life included a series of very unfortunate events. She grew up impoverished in France, and at the tender age of twelve, she was faced with the death of her mother, Jeanne Devolle, in 1895. The responsibility of Chanel and her four siblings fell to her father, Albert Chanel, who soon “abandoned her and her two sisters to an orphanage and her two brothers to a local family,” according to Britannica. She was sent to a convent and that is where she, with the help of the nuns, grew up. Even with all of these terrible things that happened to her, even with no money, a dead mother, and probably all of the other odds stacked against her, she did not stop trying, she worked and worked until she was satisfied, that is what sets her apart from other designers, her drive.

When she was older and of age, the nuns from her convent landed her a job. Chanel became a “shopgirl” or a sales associate, in modern terms where she was a seamstress and did the clerking for the store. This did not last very long, but I suspect that this is where she was introduced to the clothing industry and where she essentially found her passion for fashion.

She may have been interested in fashion but before she pursued her career in the industry, she thought she was born to be a famous singer. Her next career move was to become a singer in a Parisian café. This is where she acquired her infamous nickname, “Coco” after her popular cover of the song “Qui qu'a vu Coco,”  which she had told everyone was her birth name.

Working at the café, turned out to be very lucrative for Chanel, she was introduced to a lot of people and she even befriended some very wealthy men, including an Arthur Edward "Boy" Cape, who ended up helping her, financially, to open up her second shop in Beauville in 1913. As her first was in Paris, opened in 1910, where she sold the hats that she made, which she called “Chanel Modes.” The second store focused more on clothing.