Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand. She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Along with Paul Poiret, Chanel was credited with liberating women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularizing the acceptance of a sportive, casual chic as the feminine standard in the post-World War I era. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel's influence extended beyond couture clothing. Her design aesthetic was realized in jewelry, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product.Chanel was known for her lifelong determination, ambition, and energy which she applied to her professional and social life. She achieved both success as a businesswoman and social prominence thanks to the connections she made through her work. These included many artists and craftspeople to whom she became a patron. However, Chanel's life choices generated controversy, particularly her behaviour during the German occupation of France in World War II.
Lucien Chanel, Augustin Chanel, Alphonse Chanel, Antoinette Chanel, Pierre Chanel, Julia Chanel
Awards
Neiman Marcus Fashion Award
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Costume Design, César Award for Best Actress, César Award for Best Supporting Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, César Award for Best Writing - Adaptation, César Award for Best Cinematography, César Award for Best Production Design, BAFTA Award for Bes...
Star Sign
Leo
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Quote
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Dior? He doesn't dress women, he upholsters them.
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When I realized that my business had a life, my life, and a face, my face, a voice, my own, and when I realized my work loved me, obeyed me and responded to me, I gave myself over to it completely and I have had since no greater love.
3
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
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Fact
1
She retired in 1938 and made a successful comeback in 1954.
2
Her birth certificate is misleading - her father's surname and hers were misspelt due to a clerical error as "Chasnel". Her father's surname on his own birth certificate had also been misspelt as "Charnet". The mistake on his birth certificate was not corrected in official records until 1878 when a court decree stated that Charnet be replaced on the certificate by Chanel, which is the true name.
3
Her older sister Julia was born on September 11, 1882.
4
She was the second daughter of Henri-Albert Chanel and Eugénie Jeanne Dévolles. She was born out of wedlock until her parents married on November 17, 1884. In marrying Jeanne, Albert legalized his paternity, and Coco and her sister Julia's names were recorded in the "livret de famille," the handbook issued to every couple for registration of births and deaths.
After their mother's death, Coco and her sister went to live at a local orphanage. Eventually the girls were claimed by their aunts.
7
Her mother died of tuberculosis.
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Worked for Sergei Diaghilev in 1924-1928 as costume designer for his "Russian Seasons" in collaboration with Pablo Picasso.
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Popularized the sun-tanned look in the 1920s after appearing on her vacation yacht with a sun tan. Prior to that, porcelain white skin was popular, because it was believed that only people of lower class worked in the sun and were therefore tan.
10
She sprayed all of her atelier fitting rooms with Chanel No. 5.
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Learned to sew while attending a convent school.
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Took on the nickname Coco after her 1905 performance of the song, "Qui qu'a vu Coco dans le Trocadero" for a crowd of uniformed admirers at La Rotande, a music hall in a small, provincial town.
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Her perfume, Chanel No. 5, is the first perfume to be a blend of many floral scents, rather than smelling like a single type of flower.
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Loved camellias.
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Declared that Katharine Hepburn (at 60) was "too old" to play her in the Broadway musical Coco.
$100 Million
