Schaefer
English IV
20 March 2009
Chanel
Coco Chanel is one of the most inspiring women there ever was. She had a dream to become a designer. She found ways to accomplish those dreams even if it meant she had to start at the bottom. She established one of the top selling clothing stores in the fashion world today. She was the first woman to ever change the look and feel of women clothing. Chanel believed that fashion was everywhere in the world. She once said, “Fashion is not simply a matter of clothes. Fashion is in the air, born upon the wind. One intuits it. It is in the sky and on the road” (Sischy). Coco Chanel was the designer who took high fashion and gave it to the common woman.
“There is a time for work and time for love. That leaves no other time.” Chanel once said (Chanel). Coco Chanel had two love affairs with a military officer and a British businessman. They gave her the moral support and money to make her dream possible for her to start her own shop for Parisian women in 1909(History). Her shop was named Chanel Modes and her main focus was on selling women hats (History). Her shop was on the ground floor in an apartment in Paris, France. This is where she earned enough money to open a bigger shop in 1914 (Chanel). Once Chanel moved to her larger shop in Rue Cambon, she started to design and sell blazers, linen skirts, long jersey sweaters, sailor tops, and skirt-jacket suits (Frank).
Chanel’s shop in Rue Cambon was where she became famous by the early 1920 's (History). She was known of the Queen of Fashion (Frank). Chanel’s designs started to revolutionize Haute Couture by having comfortable yet stylish clothes (Farrer). Her clothes changed how women looked in appearance and how they looked at themselves (Sischy). Corset fashions were the base of women clothing for many centuries, then the modern and simple Chanel clothing started to contrast with it (History). “Chanel started to mix up male and female clothes
Cited: “Chanel No. 1” Time Magazine 25 Jan 1971. 3 Feb. 2009 . Farrer, Jacqueline. The History of Chanel. 1 Nov. 2008. Female First. 3 Feb. 2009 . Frank, Franziska. Gabrielle Chanel. 1999. Fashion Model Directory. 3 Feb. 2009. History of Chanel. 2005. Chic-designer. 3 Feb. 2009. Sischy Ingrid, and Vanity Fair, eds. “Time 100: Coco Chanel.” Time Magazine 2009. 3 Feb. 2009