Coco Chanel

• Born: 19 August 1883
• Birthplace: Saumur, France
• Died: 10 January 1971
• Best Known As: The designer who created the "little black dress"

Name at birth: Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel

Designer Coco Chanel gave the world the little black dress, Chanel No. 5 perfume, and the revolutionary notion that style could be both classic and casual. Coco -- a nickname meaning "little pet" -- was raised in an orphanage, where she learned to sew. In 1910 she began selling hats from her own shop, and by the 1920s her fashion business had expanded to include a couture house, her own textile factory and a line of perfumes that included the famous No. 5. Chanel took women's fashions away from stiff corsets and introduced casual, practical clothing that borrowed fabrics and attitudes from men's fashion. She was the first to introduce black as a fashion color; her versatile, semi-formal "little black dress" became a Chanel trademark and an enduring fashion standard. During and after World War II Chanel's popularity waned, and her love affair with a Nazi officer sent her into a form of self-imposed exile in Switzerland for nearly 15 years. She made a comeback in 1954 and her designs became some of the most popular in the western world, especially in the United States. After her death the Coco Chanel Company was directed by designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Katharine Hepburn portrayed Chanel on Broadway in the musical Coco (1969, also with Rene Auberjonois)... Chanel was also played by Shirley MacLaine in a 2008 movie on the Lifetime Channel, and by Audrey Tautou in the 2009 French feature Coco avant Chanel ("Coco Before Chanel").

For more information on Coco Chanel, visit Britannica.com.

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971) was noted for her free-flowing, loose-fitting designs for women's clothing, first introduced in 1919, and again in 1954.

In 1919 French designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel released women from the tight corsets of the era and introduced them to comfortable jersey clothing. In 1954, after fifteen years of retirement and just six months before her seventy-first birthday, she made a comeback and freed women once again from highly structured, constricting designs - this time the clothing of the "New Look." Critics were lukewarm, but women, particularly American women, loved her casual, softly shaped clothes and snapped them up. These designs ushered in a new relaxation in fashion that continues today.

Early Years

Little is known of Chanel's early years except that she was orphaned as a young child. She started in fashion in 1910, making hats in Paris. Chanel opened her first dress shop in Paris in 1914 and closed it in 1939 at the onset of World War II. But in the period between the world wars she revolutionized women's fashion with her straight, simple, uncorseted, and, above all, comfortable "Chanel Look." She also popularized short hair for women in the 1920s and introduced shorter skirts. She created her famous Chanel No. 5 perfume in 1922.

Later Years

In 1954 Chanel said her competitive spirit was aroused because Parisian high fashion had been taken over by men. "There are too many men in this business," she told a magazine interviewer in May 1954, "and they don't know how to make clothes for women. All this fantastic pinching and puffing. How can a woman wear a dress that's cut so she can't lift up her arm to pick up a telephone?" She had a knack for knowing what women wanted, and women responded enthusiastically. In the 1950s her famous Chanel suit - a collarless, braid-trimmed cardigan jacket and slim, graceful skirt - was an enormous hit. She also popularized pea jackets and bell-bottom trousers plus magnificent jewelry worn with sportswear.

In 1969 Coco Chanel's life was the basis for Coco, a Broadway musical starring Katharine Hepburn. Chanel died in 1971, working to the end on a new collection.

Widely known for her creation of the ‘classic’ tailored suit and ‘little black dresses’ often worn with strings of pearls, French couturier Chanel's enduring appeal was attested to by the launching of the Coco musical on Broadway in 1969. Her career began as a hat designer in Paris in 1908, and in 1914 she opened boutiques in Paris and the fashionable northern French resort of Deauville. She soon gained a reputation for chic and, two years later, ventured into haute couture in Biarritz in the south of France. The famous Chanel suit evolved in the 1920s and was worn with matching silk shirt and two-toned shoes. The boutique was closed during the Second World War, reopening in 1954 when the Chanel style once again flourished. The simple, eminently practical dimension of Chanel's outlook proved attractive to many and was influential on ready-to-wear goods. After her death the business was taken forward by a number of designers including Yvonne Dudel and Jean Cazaubon, who worked on the couture collections from 1975 to 1983, and Karl Lagerfeld, who took over the couture and, from 1984, the ready-to-wear collections.

• Born: Saumur, France, 19 August 1883.
• Education: At convent orphanage, Aubazine, 1895-1900; convent school, Moulins, 1900-02.
• Career: Clerk, Au Sans Pareil hosiery shop, Moulins, 1902-04; café-concert singer, using nickname "Coco," in Moulins and Vichy, 1905-08; lived with Etienne Balsan, Château de Royalieu and in Paris, 1908-09; stage costume designer, 1912-37, established millinery and women's fashion house with sponsorship of Arthur "Boy" Cappel, in Paris, 1913, later on rue Cambon, Paris, 1928; established fashion shops in Deauville, 1913, Biarritz, 1916; fragrance, No. 5, marketed from 1921; film costume designer, 1931-62; headquarters closed during World War II; exiled to Lausanne for affair with Nazi officer, 1945-53; rue Cambon headquarters reopened and first post-war showing, 1954; Broadway musical Coco, starring Katherine Hepburn debuted on Broadway, 1969; company continued after Chanel's death, 1971; ready-to-wear introduced, 1977; Karl Lagerfeld brought in as designer for couture, 1983; Lagerfeld took over ready-to-wear, 1984; gun manufacturer Holland & Holland acquired, 1996; French beachwear company Eres pruchased, 1997; one licensing agreement with Luxxotica for eyewear. Other fragrances include No. 22, 1921, Cuir de Russie, 1924, No. 19, 1970, and from the House of Chanel, Cristalle, 1974, Coco, 1984, Egoïste for men, 1990, Allure, 1996, and Allure Homme, 1998; launch of Precision skincare line, 1999; introduced line of his-and-hers watches, 2000.
• Exhibitions:Les Grands Couturiers Parisiens 1910-1939, Musée du Costume, Paris, 1965; Fashion: An Anthology, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1971; The Tens, Twenties & Thirties, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977; Folies de dentelles: Balenciaga, Cardin, Chanel, Dior…Exposition du 24 juin au octobre 2000, Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la dentelle, 2000.
• Awards: Neiman Marcus award, Dallas, 1957; Sunday Times International Fashion award, London, 1963.
• Died: 10 January 1971, in Paris.
• Company Address: 29-31 rue Cambon, 75001 Paris, France.
• Company Website:www.chanel.com.

A woman of ambition and determination, Gabrielle Chanel, nicknamed "Coco," rose from humble beginnings and an unhappy childhood to become one of the 20th century's most prominent couturiers, prevailing for nearly half a century. In contrast to the opulent elegance of the belle époque, Chanel's designs were based on simplicity and elegance. She introduced relaxed dressing, expressing the aspirations of the day's woman, replacing impractical clothing with functional styling.

Chanel's early years tended to be vague in detail, being full of inaccuracies and contradictions, due to her deliberate concealment of her deprived childhood. It is generally accepted that Chanel gained some dressmaking and millinery experience prior to working in a hat shop in Deauville, France. Using her skills as a milliner she opened shops in Paris, Deauville, and Biarritz with the financial assistance of a backer. Chanel was an astute businesswoman and skillful publicist, quickly expanding her work to include skirts, jerseys in stockinette jersey, and accessories.

Recognized as the designer of the 1920s, Chanel initiated an era of casual dressing, appropriate to the occasion, for relaxed outdoor clothing created to be worn in comfort and without constricting corsets, liberating women with loosely fitting garments. Her style was of uncluttered simplicity, incorporating practical details.

In 1916 Chanel introduced jersey, a soft elasticated knit previously only used for undergarments, as the new fashion fabric. Wool jersey produced softer, lighter clothing with uncluttered fluid lines. She made simple jersey dresses in navy and grey, cut to flatter the figure rather than to emphasize and distort the natural body shape. The demand for her new nonconformist designs by the wealthy was so great and the use of jersey so successful Chanel extended her range, creating her own jersey fabric designs, which were manufactured by Rodier.

Highly original in her concept of design, Chanel ceaselessly borrowed ideas from the male wardrobe, combining masculine tailoring with women's clothing. Her suits were precise but remain untailored, with flowing lines, retaining considerable individuality and simple elegance. Riding breeches, wide-legged trousers, blazers, and sweaters were all taken and adapted. A major force in introducing and establishing common sense and understated simplicity into womenswear, Chanel's coordination of the cardigan, worn with a classic straight skirt, became a standard combination of wearable separates.

Chanel produced her cardigans in tweed and jersey fabrics, initiating the perennially popular "Chanel suit," which usually consisted of two or three pieces: a cardigan-style jacket, weighted with her trademark gilt chain stitched around the inside hem, a simple easy-to-wear skirt, worn with a blouse (with blouse fabric coordinated with the jacket lining). Her work offered comfort and streamlined simplicity, creating clothes for the modern woman, whom she epitomized herself. The key to her design philosophy was construction, producing traditional classics outliving each season's new fashion trends and apparel. While other designers presented new looks for each new season, Chanel adapted the refined detailing and style lines.

Her colors were predominantly grey, navy, and beige, incorporating highlights of a richer and broader palette. Chanel introduced the ever popular "little black dress,"created for daywear, eveningwear, and cocktail dressing which became a firm fixture in the fashion world during her tenure, and is still popular today.

Attentive to detail, adding to day and eveningwear, Chanel established a reputation for extensive uses of costume jewelery, with innovative combinations of real and imitation gems, crystal clusters, strings of pearls, and ornate jewelled cuff links, adding brilliant contrast to the stark simplicity of her designs. The successful development of Chanel No. 5 perfume in 1922 assisted in the financing of her couture empire during difficult years. An interesting aspect of Chanel's career was the reopening of her couture house, which was closed during World War II. After 15 years in exile for having an affair with Nazi officer Hans Gunther von Dincklage, Chanel relaunched her work in 1954 at the age of 71, reintroducing the Chanel suit, which formed the basis for many of her collections and become a hallmark. The look adopted shorter skirts and braid trimmed cardigan jackets.

Despite her work and individual style, Chanel craved personal and financial independence, and was ruthless in her search for success. She was unique in revolutionizing the fashion industry with dress reform and in promoting the emancipation of women. Her influence touched many American and European designers, who have continued to reinforce her concept of uncomplicated classics. Once such designer is Karl Lagerfeld who took over designing the Chanel couture line in 1983 and its ready-to-wear collections the following year. He is widely credited with bringing Chanel back to the forefront of fashion, by taking original Chanel designs and tweaking them to appeal to younger customers.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s Lagerfeld kept the Chanel name alive and well. His collections receive high praise, season after season, and he is among the last of the great old-school designers. As Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune so aptly put it in March 2000, "Lagerfeld will soon be the last of the fashion Mohicans, the tribe that came center stage in ready-to-wear in the 1960s but were schooled in the old couture ways of rigorous cut, perfect execution, invention in detail.… Who in the next generation can ever fill his seven-league boots?" Who indeed?

Publications

On Chanel:

Books
• Crawford, M.D.C., The Ways of Fashion, New York, 1948.
• Baillen, Claude, Chanel solitaire, Paris, 1971, and London, 1973.
• Haedrich, Michael, Coco Chanel secréte, Paris, 1971; published asCoco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, Boston, 1972.
• Galante, Pierre, Les années Chanel, Paris, 1972; published as Made-moiselle Chanel, Chicago, 1973.
• Charles-Roux, Edmonde, L'irréguliére, ou mon itinéraire Chanel, Paris, 1974; published as Chanel, Her Life, Her World, New York, 1975, London, 1976.
• Morand, Paul, L'allure de Chanel, Paris, 1976, 1996.
• Charles-Roux, Edmonde, Chanel and Her World, Paris, 1979, London, 1981.
• Delay, Claude, Chanel solitaire, Paris, 1983.
• The Polytechnic, Coco Chanel, Brighton, 1984.
• Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, Couture: The Great Designers, NewYork, 1985.
• Haedrich, Marcel, Coco Chanel, Paris, 1987.
• Leymarie, Jean, Chanel, New York, 1987.
• Charles-Roux, Edmonde, Chanel, London, 1989.
• Kennett, Frances, Coco: The Life and Loves of Gabrielle Chanel, London, 1989.
• Grumbach, Lilian, Chanel m'a dit, Paris, 1990.
• Madsen, Axel, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, New York, 1990.
• Guillen, Pierre-Yves, and Jacqueline Claude, The Golden Thimble: French Haute Couture, Paris, 1990.
• Steele, Valerie, Women of Fashion: Twentieth-Century Designers, New York, 1991.
• Mackrell, Alice, Coco Chanel, New York, 1992.
• Ash, Juliet, and Elizabeth Wilson, eds., Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader, Berkeley, California, 1993.
• Lagerfeld, Karl, Chanel, Paris, 1995.
• Baudot, François, Chanel, New York, 1996.
• Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la dentelle, Folies de dentelles: Balenciaga, Cardin, Chanel, Dior…, [exhibition catalogue], Alençon, 2000.

Articles
• "Gabrielle Chanel," [obituary] in the Times (London), 12 January 1971.
• "Chanel No. 1," in Time, 25 January 1971.
• Shaeffer, Claire, "The Comfortable Side of Couture," in Threads (Newtown, Connecticut), June/July 1989.
• Kazanjian, Dodie, "Chanel Suit," in Vogue, August 1990.
• Fedii, Daniela, "Coco la ribelle," in Elle (Milan), November 1990.
• Steele, Valerie, "Chanel in Context," in Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson, eds., Chic Thrills, A Fashion Reader, Berkeley, California 1993.
• Collins, Amy Fine, "Haute Coco," in Vanity Fair (New York), June 1994.
• Menkes, Suzy, "Strong Chanel Holds Up Couture's Falling Walls," in the International Herald Tribune, 21 March 1995.
• Spindler, Amy M., "Lagerfeld Tones Down the Look at Chanel," in the New York Times, 21 March 1995.
• "Chanel: The Naughty Professor," in Women's Wear Daily, 21 March 1995.
• Sakamaki, Sachiko, "Chanel Surfing in Tokyo; Japan is Nuts About the French Brand Name," in the Far Eastern Economic Review, 11 January 1996.
• Menkes, Suzy, "Magnificent Chanel Defines the Season," in theInternational Herald Tribune, 4 March 2000.
• ——, "Class and Classics at Chanel," in the International Herald Tribune, 24 January 2001.
• ——, "Chanel Goes to the Head of the Class," in the International Herald Tribune, 11 July 2001.

— Carol MaryBrown; updated by SydonieBénet

Quotes:

"Nothing goes out of fashion sooner than a long dress with a very low neck."

"Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress."

"Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions."

"Fashion is made to become unfashionable."

"My friends, there are no friends."

"Innovation! One cannot be forever innovating. I want to create classics."

See more famous quotes by Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel
Born	Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel 19 August 1883(1883-08-19) Loire Valley, France
Died	10 January 1971 (aged 87) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Education	Boarding school in Moulins
Labels	Chanel
Awards	Neiman Marcus Fashion Award, 1957

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971)^[1] was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of the famous fashion brand Chanel. Her extraordinary influence on fashion was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.^[2]

Contents 1 Early life 2 The Chanel empire 3 Later years 4 Personal life 5 Death 6 Film depictions 7 Broadway production Coco 8 Literary depictions 9 Depiction in song 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links

Early life

Chanel was born on August 19th, 1883 in the small city of Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. She was the second daughter of traveling salesman Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle. Coco was born in a poorhouse. Her birth was recorded the following day. Two employees of the hospice went to city hall and declared the child female. The hospice employees were illiterate, so when the mayor François Poitu wrote down the birth, no one knew how to spell Chanel so the mayor improvised and recorded it with an "s," making it Chasnel. This misspelling made the tracing of her roots almost impossible for biographers when Chanel later rose to prominence. Her parents married in 1883. She had five siblings: two sisters, Julian (1882-1913) and Antoinette (born 1887) and three brothers, Alphonse (born 1885), Lucien (born 1889) and Peter (born and died 1891). In 1895, when she was 12 years old, Chanel's mother died of tuberculosis and her father left the family a short time later because he needed to work to raise his children. Because of his work, the young Chanel spent seven years in the orphanage of the Roman Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she learned the trade of a seamstress. School vacations were spent with relatives in the provincial capital, where female relatives taught Coco to sew with more flourish than the nuns at the monastery were able to demonstrate. When Coco turned eighteen, she left the orphanage, and took up work for a local tailor.

Hat by Chanel, 1912. Published in Les Modes.

While working at a tailoring shop she met and soon began an affair with the French millionaire Étienne Balsan who lavished on her the beauties of "the rich life:" diamonds, dresses and pearls. While living with Balsan, Chanel began designing hats as a hobby, which soon became a deeper interest of hers. After opening her eyes, as she would say, Coco left Balsan and took over his apartment in Paris. In 1913, she opened up her very first shop which sold a range of fashionable raincoats and jackets. Situated in the heart of Paris it wasn't long before the shop went out of business and Chanel was asked to surrender her properties. This did not discourage her; it only made her more determined. During the pre-war era, Chanel met up with an estranged and former best friend of Étienne Balsan, Arthur "Boy" Capel, with whom she soon fell in love. With his assistance, Chanel was able to acquire the property and financial backing to open her second millinery shop in Brittany. Her hats were worn by celebrated French actresses, which helped to establish her reputation. In 1913, Chanel introduced women’s sportswear at her new boutique in Deauville, in the Rue Gounaut-Biron; Marthe, Countess de Gounaut-Biron (daughter of American diplomat John George Alexander Leishman), was Chanel's first aristocratic client. Her third shop and successor to her biggest store in France was located in Deauville, where more women during the World War I era came to accept her view that women were supposed to dress for themselves and not their men.

Later in life, she concocted an elaborate false history for her humble beginnings. Chanel would steadfastly claim that when her mother died, her father sailed for America to get rich and she was sent to live with two cold-hearted spinster aunts. She even claimed to have been born in 1893 as opposed to 1883, and that her mother had died when Coco was two instead of twelve. All this was done to diminish the stigma that poverty, orphanhood, and illegitimacy bestowed upon unfortunates in nineteenth-century France.

In 1920, she was introduced by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev to world famous composer Igor Stravinsky (who composed 'The Rite of Spring'), to whom she extended an offer for him and his family to reside with her. During this temporary sojourn it was rumoured that they had an affair.

The Chanel empire

Main article: Chanel

In 1923 Coco Chanel told Harper's Bazaar 'simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance'. Coco Chanel always kept the clothing she designed simple, comfortable, and revealing. Unlike most designers in Europe, she kept the woman inside the clothes at the center of her creations. "I gave women a sense of freedom; I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to fashion's finery, lace, corsets, underclothes, padding."^[3] She took what were considered poor fabrics like jersey and upgraded them. Chanel's style is popularly associated with the image of the 1920s flapper, a "new breed" of self-confident young women that challenged the established concept of socially acceptable behavior. The flappers demonstrated their independence through new looks and attitude, such as short skirts and haircuts, openly using cosmetics, and being seen to smoke and drink cocktails. Compared to previous generations of women the flappers also showed an increased level of activity, pursuing athletic sports, driving their own automobiles, and going out to nightclubs where they could listen to jazz music and do energetic dances such as the Charleston.

The iconic Chanel jacket is a symbol of this design philosophy. A Chanel couture jacket has numerous design and construction details that distinguish it from a tailored jacket as traditionally constructed. For example, these jackets lack the complex inner structure of interfacings, pad stitching, and facings commonly used in bespoke tailoring. Rather, the silk lining is machine quilted directly to the fashion fabric, the long exterior seams of the fashion fabric are machine sewn, then the shoulder fashion fabric seams are hand sewn. The interior lining seams and the outside edges of the lining are turned under and hand stitched to the edge of the jacket. The three piece sleeve (another distinctive Chanel feature) is constructed in a similar manner, then hand sewn to the body of the jacket. The heavy trims, cast metal buttons and the curbed chain sewn to the hem serve a functional purpose by adding weight to a garment that is really nothing more than fashion fabric and lining.^[4] The end result is a supremely comfortable garment, more like a sweater than a traditional jacket. Most of her fashions had a staying power, and didn't change much from year to year-or even generation to generation.^[5]

Chanel came out with her first signature fragrance, Chanel No. 5, in 1921. The perfume was the first to have a designer's name attached to it, and it has enjoyed tremendous success since its introduction. In this way, Chanel set the standard for successive designers to do the same.^[6]

Later years

In 1925, Vera Bate Lombardi, reputedly the illegitimate daughter of Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge and Duke of Teck,^[7] became Chanel's muse and public relations liaison to a number of European royal families. Lombardi had the highest connections possible to build the House of Chanel. Chanel established the English look based upon Lombardi's persona and Lombardi introduced Chanel to her uncle the Duke of Westminster, her cousin the Duke of Windsor, and many other aristocratic families for Chanel's creative, romantic, financial, social and political rise to power.^[8]

In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, the designer closed her shops. She believed that it was not a time for fashion.^{[citation needed]} She would live in the Hôtel Ritz Paris on and off for more than 30 years, making the hotel her Paris home even during the Nazi occupation. During that time she was criticized for having an affair with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German officer and Nazi spy who arranged for her to remain in the hotel.^[2][9] She also maintained an apartment above her couture house at 31, rue Cambon and built Villa La Pausa in Roquebrune on the French Riviera.

In 1943 after 4 years of professional separation, Chanel sought collaboration with Lombardi in Rome to access Lombardi's relative Sir Winston Churchill in the Walter Schellenberg Nazi plot "Operation Modellhut" under the guise of requesting Lombardi return to work for the House of Chanel in Paris.^[8][10] When Vera refused Chanel's invitation to come to Paris, she was arrested as an English spy and thrown into a Roman prison by the Gestapo. Chanel's invitation to Lombardi became purposely diverted by Chanel during a trip to the Ritz Hotel in Madrid, Spain. The true motive of her invitation was to use Lombardi to contact Churchill in order to arrange a meeting between him and Chanel. Chanel was later arrested and charged with war crimes, but avoided trial due to an intervention by the British Royal family.^[8]

In 1945, she moved to Switzerland, eventually returning to Paris in 1954, the year she also returned to the fashion world. Her new collection did not have much success with the Parisians because of her relationship with the Nazis; however, it was much applauded by the British and Americans, who became her faithful customers.^[11]

Personal life

Coco had affairs with some of the most influential men at the time but she never married which she explained with the words 'There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel' (when asked why she did not marry Duke of Westminster for example). ^[12]

Death

Coco Chanel died of a heart attack in her private suite at the Hôtel Ritz Paris on 10 January 1971, at the age of 87. She was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland and her tombstone is carved with lion heads representing her birth sign, Leo. ^[13]

Film depictions

Chanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton and Rutger Hauer.

The American television movie Coco Chanel debuted on 13 September 2008 on Lifetime Television, starring Shirley MacLaine as a 70-year-old Chanel. Directed by Christian Duguay, the film also starred Barbora Bobulova as the young Chanel, Olivier Sitruk as Boy Capel, and Malcolm McDowell.^[14]

There is also a film starring Audrey Tautou as the young Coco, titled Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel), which was released on 22 April 2009. Filming on the project began 15 September 2008. Audrey Tautou is the new spokeswoman of Chanel S.A

Another film concerns the affair between Chanel and the composer Igor Stravinsky. Chosen to close the Cannes Film Festival of 2009, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is directed by Jan Kounen and stars Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen. The film is based on the 2002 novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh.^[15]

Two more projects are said to be in the works: one directed by Daniele Thompson; and one to star Demi Lovato.^{[citation needed]}

Broadway production Coco

Chanel was portrayed by Katharine Hepburn on Broadway in the 1969 musical Coco, with music by André Previn, lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner, musical direction by Robert Emmett Dolan, orchestration by Hershy Kay, and dance arrangements by Harold Wheeler.

After 40 previews, the production opened on 18 December 1969 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, where it ran for 329 performances. Hepburn was nominated for a Tony Award.

Literary depictions

Coco & Igor is a novel, written by Chris Greenhalgh, which depicts the affair between Chanel and Igor Stravinsky and the creative achievements that this affair inspired. The novel was first published in 2003.

In 2008 a children's book entitled Different like Coco was published. It depicted the humble childhood of Coco Chanel and chronicled how she made drastic changes to the fashion industry.

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman is a novel written by Karen Karbo. Published in 2009, it chronicles the humble beginnings and legendary achievements of Coco Chanel while providing insight and advice on everything from embracing the moment to living life on your own terms.

Depiction in song

British singer Annabelle Silvertree has written a song inspired by the life of Coco Chanel called 'Notes from an Opera' ^[16]

References

1. ^ "Madamoiselle Chanel: The Perennially Fashionable". Chanel. http://um.chanel.com/coco.php?la=en-us&lo=us&re=chanelcom. Retrieved 2006-10-13. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Ingrid Sischy (1998-06-08). "Coco Chanel". TIME 100 - The Most Important People of the Century. TIME. 
3. ^ Degunst, Sylviane. (2008) Coco Chanel: Quotes Huitième Jour Editions.
4. ^ "Couture Sewing Techniques", Shaeffer, pp. 182-183, c. 1993 Taunton Press ISBN-0-942391-88-8
5. ^ http://womenshistory.about.com/od/chanelcoco/a/coco_chanel.htm
6. ^ http://www.zimbio.com/100+Most+Influential+People+in+Fashion/articles/304/Fashion+Influential+3+Coco+Chanel
7. ^ The Peerage: Sarah Getrude Arkwright, #159285, b. 1885
8. ^ ^{a b c} Charles-Roux, Edmonde. Chanel: Her Life, Her World, and the Woman Behind the Legend She Herself Created, New York : Alfred A. Knopf, distributed by Random House, 1975. ISBN 0-394-47613-1, pp. 249, 250, 256, 323, 331-43, 355, 359.
9. ^ Chanel and the Nazis: what Coco Avant Chanel and other films don't tell you The Times. 4 April 2009
10. ^ Thurman, Judith. "Scenes from a Marriage, the House of Chanel at the Met." The New Yorker, May 23, 2005.
11. ^ http://www.internetstones.com/chanel-cuff-bracelet-gabrielle-cocol-fine-jewelry-artistic-collection-hautecouture-accessories.html
12. ^ Coco Chanel Biography
13. ^ "Findagrave". Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. 2003-06-16. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7264027. Retrieved 2007-06-16. 
14. ^ "Coco Chanel" telepic boasts pleasing aroma, Reuters, 11 September 2008.
15. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/10904957/year/2009.html. Retrieved 2009-05-15. 
16. ^ "Notes from an Opera Video on Youtube". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1v-1NVkiEc2. Retrieved 2009-08-06. 

Further reading

• Charles-Roux, Edmonde (2005). Chanel and her World. London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 383 pages.. ISBN 978-0-500-51216-6. 

Spotlight on a Modern Day Philosopher- Coco Chanel http://ehwhybother.blogspot.com/2008/11/spotlight-on-modern-day-philosopher.html

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Coco Chanel

• Official Site of Chanel
• "Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1486_couture/explore.php. 

v • d • e Grands couturiers Contemporary Adeline André  · Carolina Herrera  · Chado Ralph Rucci  · Collette Dinnigan  · Alber Elbaz  · Giorgio Armani · Pierre Cardin · Roberto Cavalli · Julien Fournié  · John Galliano · Jean-Paul Gaultier  · Anne Valérie Hash  · Ralph Lauren · Christian Lacroix · Karl Lagerfeld  · Alexander McQueen  · Oscar de la Renta  · Dominique Sirop  · Franck Sorbier  · Emanuel Ungaro · Calvin Klein · Donna Karan · Miuccia Prada  · Valentino  · Vivienne Westwood Historic Cristóbal Balenciaga  · Coco Chanel  · Christian Dior  · Jeanne Lanvin  · Jeanne Paquin  · Paul Poiret  · Emilio Pucci  · Elsa Schiaparelli · Gianni Versace  · Madeleine Vionnet  · Yves Saint Laurent

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