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A tireless woman, Coco Chanel She went from growing up in an orphanage to dressing the divas of the 20th century to becoming a legend of fashion history. It is considered by the magazine time one of the hundred most influential people of the 20th century. The designer had a life full of love and heartbreak, social and economic advancement in which there was no shortage of betrayals.

Gabrille Chanel was born in Saumur (France) on August 19, 1883 in a humble family. At 12 years old, misery and pregnancies took his mother ahead of him. Her father gave her to care of some nuns in a hospice in Corrèze, where she spent the next six years learning to sew.

He started working as shop assistant in a haberdashery in Moulins. He combined this work linked to the world of fashion with his performances at La Rotonde, a leisure place for Army officers. There he let his voice be heard to the sound of popular songs like Qui qu’a vu Coco?, origin of the nickname with which he would go down in history.

“It’s not the appearance, it’s the essence. It’s not the money, it’s the education. It’s not the clothes, it’s the class”

At the age of 22 he met Etienne Balsana wealthy bourgeois with whom she had a six-year relationship. The young man introduced him to the life of luxury. But Chanel wanted to work, so she negotiated with him to finance her hat shop. While he was mulling over the idea, she eloped to Paris with the polo player Arthur Boy Capel, one of her partner’s best friends.

In Paris, Chanel was still clinging to the idea of ​​opening a fashion house and, since he had no money, he asked his former lover for it. In 1910 he opened the hat shop at 21 rue Cambon (Paris) and called it Chanel Modes. Important French actresses attended there and wore her hats, helping her build her reputation.

Two years later, he opened his first boutique in Deauville and a year later began selling a line of knitted sportswear. Until then, this material had been used to make men’s underwear. The success was immediate and a revolution in women’s relationship with their bodies.

The beginning of a legend

When on June 28, 1914 World War I broke out, Chanel realized that the times demanded that fashion adapt to new circumstances, they were looking for something more sporty and functional.

He abolished the corset, introduced the knit and dared to cut the length of the skirts. With knitting he made the sweater, which was followed by charming chemise dressa shirt-dress without a waist or decorations that highlighted the bust.

“Simplicity is the key to true elegance”

Besides, introduced the cut garçon, that marked the end of an era. He tanned when she considered herself synonymous with commoners and imposed her extreme thinness (the result of the deprivations of war) on her clients.

In 1915, Chanel opened her first Maison de Couture in Biarritz (France) with 300 employees and there she designed her first Haute Couture collection.

While his professional life could not have gone better, His personal life was not working out. In 1919, after having lived surrounded by rumors of infidelity About Capel, he left her for an aristocrat.

He threw himself into his career

He returned to Paris, settled in the Ritz Hotel and devoted himself to his professional career. His success continued to grow, Media around the world spread his style. In 1921 she launched the famous Chanel Nº5 perfume.

The “feminine perfume that smells like a woman”, revolutionary due to its composition, name and presentation. She was the actress Marilyn Monroe who turned the fragrance into a symbol, when he said during an interview that a few drops of Chanel Nº5 were the only thing he put on to sleep.

“I don’t make fashion, I am fashion”

Two years later he dared to use makeup and the company was born. Société des Parfums CHANEL to make perfumes and cosmetics. At that time she designed pleated skirts, low-waisted suits, beach pajamas, raincoats and pants for women. She threw the round toe shoes and the famous bag with golden chains which was carried on a shoulder bag.

He also created the black suit which has been on the cover of numerous fashion magazines and we must not forget that in 1925 it launched the brand’s star: a suit with a matching skirt and jacket, long sleeves, collarless and trimmed. Another of her revolutionary contributions was low heel shoe. And together with Raymond Massaro he collaborated in the creation of a shoe model made in two tones: the body and heel were beigewhile the toe cap is black.

In September 28, Chanel buys land in Roquebrune-Cap-Map between Menton and Monaco. There he builds his villa, The Pause. In said mansion, Chanel receives numerous prestigious friends such as the Duke of Westminster, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Ravery and even Gala and Salvador Dalí.

The crack of 29

In 1929, The Wall Street crash forced it to reduce its workforce, which had grown to 4,000 workers, by half. The prices of his garments were reduced considerably, but the crisis prevented him from recovering the brand.

Chanel reacted and went to North America with an offer from film producer Samuel Goldwyn. He proposed dressing the stars of the studio United Artists and created the costumes for Tonight or never (1931) and The Greeks had a world to themselves (1932).

“Keep your head, your heels and your principles high”

The salons were reopened when the situation improved, but At the beginning of World War II, Chanel had to close them again, although he continued living in the French capital. Boutique 31 remained open, where perfumes and accessories continue to be sold.

Was Chanel a spy?

In 1940, when Chanel was 57 years old, The Germans occupied Paris. At that time Chanel was already a benchmark in the world of fashion and a prestigious businesswoman with 4,000 employees in its workshops. Although she fled in fear to the south of the country, the Germans, who wanted to maintain the city’s fame, achieved the return of Chanel and other personalities of the time.

The documentary The shadow of a doubtbroadcast by France 3, says that the designer returned, but there she became Secret Agent who worked directly for the german intelligence. The historian Franck Ferrand assured that some documents located in the archives of the French Ministry of Defense prove this.

According to the documentary, Chanel would have fallen in love with Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German diplomat who turned out to be a Nazi spy recruiter. Through him, Chanel supposedly achieved the release of her nephew Gabriel, who was always suspected of being the designer’s own son.

In ’44 she was arrested and accused of collaborationism. After this episode he went into exile in Switzerland.

The legend of Chanel

“You can be beautiful at thirty, charming at forty and irresistible for the rest of your life”

At 71 years old, Chanel reopened her Maison de Couture with a show on February 5, which was very well received by the American press.

During the 1960s, celebrities such as Jane Fonda or Jacki Kennedy They start dressing in Chanel. In the mid-60s, Jacques Helleu joined the brand as artistic director of beauty products and perfumes.

“May my legend continue on its path. I wish you good and long life.” Chanel died on January 10, affected by rheumatism and arthritis but without having stopped putting pins. Some publications indicate that that day Chanel had gone out with her friend Claude Baillen for a walk, when they returned, tired, Chanel lay down on her bed at the Ritz and told her: “Look, this is how you die.”

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