Gabrielle Chanel Research Paper

Gabrielle Chanel was a very singular woman. As opposed to many other women of her era, she wanted to have a successful career, but most importantly, to achieve it by herself. She wasn't afraid to work hard to be able to reach a certain wealth which, to her, symbolized her independancy. If we could back to her childhood, it is pretty easy to observe that having no money and no control over the instability of her life must've been difficult and it certainly had an impact on her life goals and the way she lived her life. Having barely present parents forced her to grow up prematurely and developp her independancy, which reflected on her comportement has she was growing up. Not only she had a remarkably different personnality and character, her
look was also strong and incredibly modern for that time. Her boyish figure and dark features created a mysterious beauty that was interesting and innovative at the same time.
She took advantage of her androgynous beauty as she started to innovate with clothes, mixing men's clothing and women's apparel to create a delightfully modern look, admired by a great majority of the haute society of Paris. But, it was not only the way she dressed nor the fashion revolution she created by reinventing clothes by minimalism and more sporty looks that established her mythical image of the modern woman, but also her natural independence and desire to work to acquire her full freedom and wealth to not depend on her man, but rather to stand beside him as an equal. That was revolutionnary. Chanel's attitude didn't go along with the manners of the time. For example, women were usually not expected to be ambitious nor to acquire Financial independancy. There were kind of living in the shadows of their husbands. By not conforming to these standards, Gabrielle brought a change to the perception of women, by showing that it is possible to pursue your own dream and not depend on anybody but yourself. For example, in her relationship with her lovers, she was always exuding a strong mind and acting in function of her
aspirations. Her lovers, Arthur Capel for example, were usually a little intimitated by her habit to act as their equal, since it was not common whatsoever. Capel even rejected her once effectively because her intelligence and strenght of mind created in him a certain loss of courage, leaving him with the impression the be ecclipsed by her. Eventually, he got back to her, desperately in love. So, brievely, the change brought by Chanel came through her personnality, lifestyle and of course career as a fashion designer, in the objective to express her independency and embody the essence itself of a modern days woman. These are the things that led her to create this social and fashion revolution.