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Chanel may be more than 100 years old, but the brand is as relevant as ever: the French label still tops Statista’s list of the most recognized luxury fashion houses in the United States, along with Gucci and Dior. Chanel’s enduring status as a paragon of chic, however, is largely due to its namesake founder.
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Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel launched her eponymous label in 1910. Several products created during her reign – including tweed skirt suits, quilted flap bags and Chanel No.5 – remain among the brand’s bestsellers. Chanel nods are even present in posthumous releases such as Coco Mademoiselle eau de parfum and Coco Rouge lipstick.
Known for her unconventional approach to design, Chanel set trends using unusual fabrics, colors and textures; many of them were rooted in men’s clothing. Today, she is often credited as the mother of modern fashion, and was one of the first great designers to temper comfort and simplicity with style.
In honor of what would have been her 141st birthday, take a look back at Chanel’s career milestones.
1910: First Chanel Boutique opens
Chanel got her start as a milliner, opening her first store, Chanel Modes, at 21 Rue Cambon in 1910. French actresses, including Gabrielle Dorziat, helped put Chanel on the map by wearing her early designs on stage and off. of.
Photos of Coco Chanel Through the Years: Her Evolution from 1910 to the 1960s
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By 1915, Chanel opened two more stores in the French coastal cities of Deauville and Biarritz. She introduced ready-to-wear designs and fashionable sportswear made from jersey, a lightweight fabric that was then used to make men’s underwear. Chanel helped popularize the breathable textile for women in an era of corset-like clothing restrictions, and her sweater became an instant hit.
Chanel employed 300 craftsmen at her first couture house in Biarritz. It was there that she designed her first haute couture collection.
Three years later, Chanel opened her store in Paris at 31 Rue Cambon, where it remains today. The designer also established her couture house at that address.
1921: Chanel No.5 launched
Chanel collaborated with perfumer Ernest Beaux to create the first perfume of her house, Chanel No.5. With notes of jasmine and musk, it remains one of the best-selling perfumes in the world. Named for the example that Chanel liked best, the couturier also looked at number five as a good claim.
“I show my collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year, so we’ll leave the number on it, and this fifth will bring him good luck,” she once said.
Like her clothes, Chanel sought to innovate in the fragrance category by producing a simple bottle design. At the time, many perfumes came in elaborate crystal flasks. According to the story, the bottle of Chanel No.5 was based on a whiskey memorandum held by her lover, Captain Arthur Edward “Boy” Capel.
Today, the perfume is famously associated with Marilyn Monroe, who mentioned it in a 1952 Time cover story: “This guy says ‘Marilyn, what do you wear to bed?’ I said I only wear Chanel No.5.” Iconic photo of Monroe applying Chanel No.5. It was used in the 2013 campaign to promote the perfume. Other notable spokespeople include Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman and Chanel herself, who appeared in the first fragrance ad.
1925-1926: Chanel presented the Tweed Skirt Suit and Little Black Dress
Capel wasn’t Chanel’s only male muse – one of her brand’s prolific staples, the trench coat, was born out of her relationship with the Duke of Westminster. The couple went on holiday together in the Scottish highlands, where sportsmen favored suits made from woolen knitwear. Chanel removed the textile, resulting in a lighter weight and colorful skirt suit worn with fur, metallic thread and lion-encrusted buttons, a nod to the designer’s zodiac sign.
One of the most famous Chanel tweed skirt suits is Jackie Kennedy. With a navy trim and a double-breasted silhouette, she wore cotton candy pink on the day of her husband’s murder. She refused to remove the blood-stained suit when Lyndon B. Johnson was installed.
As first lady, Kennedy was encouraged to wear only American designers, but she found a way out when the Park Avenue boutique, Chez Ninon, was making Chanel outfits from materials provided by the French label.
During the 1920s, Chanel helped pioneer the flapper look. Channeling the hourglass silhouette of the Edwardian and Belle Époque eras, its loosely beaded shifts offered greater freedom of movement. In 1926, she debuted what is now commonly known as “the little black dress.” Its simplistic, practical design drew comparisons to Henry Ford’s Model T. In the Jazz Age, women began to embrace more masculine fashion, with the Chanel “Ford” flat waist cut becoming trendy.
The moniker “LBD” derives from one of Chanel’s famous quotes: “Scheherezade is easy; A little black dress is difficult.” Today, little black dresses – Chanel or otherwise – are widely considered a closet staple.
1933: Chanel begins the Camellia Motif
The camellia is commonly associated with Chanel, as seen in brooches, scarf prints and even on packaging. The designer’s flair for the flower goes back to her childhood, when she first read “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas. Chanel took advantage of the heroine of the story, a courtesy that wore a white camellia as a sign of availability.
Chanel officially launched her first camellia design in 1933, when the flower adorned a black suit with white trim. Today, the brand makes frequent use of the camellia, and the label’s former creative director, Virginie Viard, used it as the centerpiece of Chanel’s fall 2023 fashion show series.
At the 2023 Met Gala honoring Karl Lagerfeld, several stars wore designs with camellia motifs, including Anne Hathaway, whose signature dress was separated by Versace’s signature safety pin, and Cardi B, who wore a Chenpeng Studio latex creation covered in oversized dimensions. camellias.
1955: Chanel unveiled the 2.55
Another great Chanel product is the quilted flap bag. Although the brand produced wallets as early as the 1920s, it wasn’t until 1955 that they launched the 2.55, named for its date of creation.
Today, many Chanel bags carry the double C lock – Lagerfeld’s addition – but the 2.55 has a rectangular “mademoiselle” lock, a reference to Coco herself, who never married. Its chain strap is also different from modern iterations, which are usually woven with leather. Like many Chanel staples, the 2.55 was designed with both fashion and function in mind: the bag’s shoulder-length straps allowed for hands-free carry in an era of top-handle purses. Chanel took the signature quilting of the 2.55 from stable hands, who often wore jackets made with the puffy pattern.
Inheritance
Chanel died in 1971 aged 87. Like her successor, Lagerfeld, she continued to design until her death. Today, Chanel is synonymous with luxury and many of the products she started are still considered fashion gems.
The designer has been the subject of films, television shows and even stage performances. The first, “Coco,” a musical starring Katharine Hepburn, was shot a year before Chanel’s death. Her life is now the focus of a ballet titled “Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon,” which premiered in Hong Kong in 2023.
On screen, Chanel has been portrayed by actors such as Audery Tatou and Shirley McLaine. Later, Juliette Binoche embodied the couturier in “The New Look,” an Apple TV+ miniseries that traces the rise of Christian Dior — and sheds light on Chanel’s Nazi connections.
As Chanel looks for a new creative director after Viard’s departure in 2024, the brand maintains its financial success. The luxury house reported total revenue of $19.7 billion last year, up 16 percent at comparable rates, with double-digit growth across all categories. Price increases alone represented a 9 percent advance
Launch Gallery: Photos of Coco Chanel Through the Years: Her Evolution From 1910 to 1960s
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