Coco Chanel

“To be irreplaceable one must be different”

Gabrielle, a small girl was sent to orphanage along with her two elder sisters. She had two elder brothers too. They worked as farm labors.

Gabrielle was weird and different compared to other kids in the orphanage. The nuns and her inmates didn’t like her. Gabrielle was taught to sew dresses and jackets by the Congregation nuns in the orphanage. She never knew that it was the foundation for her big dream. She dressed herself with different patterns and style which were not common in the society.  

When other girls were playing with soft toys, Gabrielle stitched cute tiny outfits for the dolls. Her hands fantabulously worked with needle and colorful thread making new cuts and designs on fabrics.

At age of 18, she was a perfect tailor making designer outfits. She sewed at day and sang at night. Gabrielle was a stage singer. She sang many songs to entertain crowds in a Café in La Rotonde. She sang “Who has seen Coco?” often, hence people called her Coco.

After each tiring day, when she hits the bed, she repeatedly dreamt about clothes, scissor, patterns, shapes, styles, models and coco.

One day Gabrielle made a simple and elegant hat for her friend Dorziat. Her friend liked it so much and showed it to her other friends. This was the first kick for Gabrielle which pushed her to  make more and more hats. She earned lot of money through selling those hats .With the money she opened a hat boutique - Chanel Modes in Paris. Coco’s hat became a trend setter during those wonderful French days.

Coco went to a big ball where she saw the ladies were sitting without stepping up and dancing on the floor. In the year 1910-1915, corset (a tightly fitted vest tied with ropes) was worn by all the ladies. The corset made them hard to breath and difficult to move around.

Coco came up with a brilliant idea to replace corseted silhouette. She made outfits using jersey and tricot fabrics which were easy and comfortable to wear and move and was less expensive too. In olden days, Jersey fabric was used to only make undergarments and sport wears for tennis and golf. Coco twisted the history of fashion with jersey.

At the time of World War I, women were engaged to do jobs like driving trains, buses and employed as nurses, civil workers in government and in factories. They felt comfortable buying and wearing outfits designed by Coco.

                               

Coco opened her first boutique for clothing in Deauville in the year 1913. COCO CHANEL brand was found.

Coco designed new styles of outfits like cardigan jackets, pleated skirts, low belted pull over top, beaded long neck chains, low heeled shoes. The flower Camellia was used as a design in Coco’s first short black suit. The trimmed black dress was big success in the market which was made out of wool, chenille, satin, crepe and velvet. Coco says “I imposed black; it’s still going strong today, for black wipes out everything else around”.

Coco didn’t stop with making clothing. She took another step forward in designing fashion jewellery too. The fashion jewels replaced gold and costly ones. She launched a house of Chanel jewelry line partnered with Verdura. A cuff ring made out of white enamel with Maltese cross on it turned out to be icon jewelry.

Coco took another step into bags segment. She made handbags inspired by soldier’s bag. Coco with Ernest Beaux made Chanel no.5 perfume and it was number one best sold fragrance perfume in the world at the time of World War II.

Coco chanel brand is top best brand in today’s market too. When you see two interlocked C’s you should be able to remember the little girl Gabrielle Coco Chanel‘s story.

Moral: Keep your heels, heads and standards HIGH. You were born original don’t become a copy. A girl should be two things: Who and what she wants.