Cathy Rideg

CHANEL Story - Part1

The House of Chanel, more commonly known as Chanel, is a Parisian fashion house in France founded by Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel born August 19, 1883.

She adopted the name Coco during a brief career as a cafe and concert singers 1905-1908. First a mistress of a wealthy military officer then of an English industrialist, she drew on the resources of these patrons in setting up a millinery shop in Paris in 1910, expanding with two men Deauville and Biarritz, which helped her find customers among women of society, and her simple hats became popular.

By the 1920s, her fashion house had expanded. Her relaxed fashions, short skirts, and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset fashions popular in the previous decades. Chanel herself dressed in mannish clothes, and adapted these more comfortable fashions which other women also found liberating.

In 1922 Chanel introduced a perfume, Chanel No. 5, which became and remained popular, and remains a profitable product of Chanel's company even today. Pierre Wertheimer became her partner in the perfume business in 1924; Coco Chanel received 10% and her friend Bader 20%. The Wertheimer’s continue to control the perfume company today.

Coco Chanel introduced her signature "little black dress" in 1926. Most of her fashions had a staying power, and didn't change much from year to year -- or even generation to generation.

She briefly served as a nurse in World War I. In 1954 her comeback restored her to the first ranks of haute couture. Her natural, casual clothing including the Chanel suit once again caught the eye , and purses of women around the world. . She introduced pea jackets and bell bottom pants for women. She was still working in 1971 when she died on January 10, 1971.

The German Karl Lagerfeld has assumed the artistic directorship of the House of Chanel since 1984. With his media coups, personified by such super models as his fellow countrywoman Claudia Schiffer, who succeeded the French model Inès de la Fressange, he has lent a new dimension to an institution which still fills the dreams of Americans and the whole world.

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