Intriguing facts about Coco Chanel...and pieces to get her look

I can't believe it's already 100 years this year that Chanel No. 5 perfume was created! A few years ago I was ecstatic when I opened a parcel in the post from my friend Aisling who was living in London (we previously met working in Brown Thomas Designer rooms and she since started ‘Thanks Plants’ an exciting new vegan food business. She had sent me a beautiful book called 'The World of Coco Chanel' for my birthday. I previously read another biography while working and studying fashion in Paris (where one exciting experience included working at a Chanel show), but reading this book reminded me how truly remarkable she was.

Considering it's the 50th anniversary of her death (January 10th 1971) I thought it would be nice to share with you some intriguing facts about this fashion legend, some which surprised me too, read on...

Her early days, starting out, and the men in her life

She was born Gabrielle Chanel on 19th August 1883, but was named “Coco” after one of the songs she used to sing when she was 18 years at a local cabaret while working her first job as a seamstress. Chanel said herself that Coco was the shortened version for ‘cocotte’, an affectionate French term for a young girl or woman.

She was from a humble background, born in a poorhouse to her mother who worked as a laundry woman and her father who was a travelling peddler. He placed her and her sisters in an orphanage in Aubazine in central France after their mother died of tuberculosis when she was only 11 years old. Thankfully the nuns (of the Sacred Heart of Mary) had taught her to sew until she left at 18. She then moved to Mougins where she worked with her sister as a store seamstress and at night as a singer. There she met Etienne Balsan (below left), a French army officer who became the first of her many lovers and moved her into his chateau which opened her eyes. There she filled her days learning to play polo, horse ride and developed some of her first hat and clothes designs for herself, using some of Etienne's clothes. He was instrumental in her life and introduced her to high society, beautiful people and surroundings, and soon she met and fell in love with his friend Captain Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (below middle), a wealthy English aristocrat.

Capel spotted her budding design talent and later financed her so she could lease a shop to sell her hat designs on 21 rue Cambon. Soon Parisian society and socialites were buying her beautiful hats and spread her name. Before he died in a tragic car accident, Boy Capel had encouraged her to expand and design clothes and accessories. He was the only man she admitted to love and was devastated by his death so she focused on work and later created her Chanel jewelry collection after being inspired by gifts of Romanov pearls from the Russian Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich (a cousin of the tragic Romanov family - see above in the tux). Her signature strings of pearls, cuff bracelets and chains with the double C logo are still big sellers today. One of her other significant lovers gave her the appreciation of English tweed and all that was heritage. He was the multiple married Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (above left at the races) who she met in 1925. During their 10 years together he spoilt her with an appartment in London Mayfair and a villa in the South of France where she made suntans fashionable, another first..!

Her perfume

In 1921 Chanel No.5 was created, she wished to create a perfume and named it after her favorite lucky number Five (she used to only ever sit for photographs on the fifth step of her famous stairs in the Chanel showroom). The scent chosen was the fifth variation presented to her by Ernest Beaux, a French perfumer. She then launched it on the fifth day of the fifth month on the 5th May 1921. She was determined to have a perfume bottle unlike any other at the time, to be modern, minimalist and understated, like her designs. She based the shape on the whiskey flask of her friend and lover Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (who financially helped her after spotting her talent) and topped off with a simple emerald shaped cap. Over a hundred years later the design has little changed.

She and Ernest researched 80 ingredients to find a unique and inimitable perfume that would be universal and instantly recognizable. It was her request that it smelt of a composition rather than of one single flower (as other perfumes did back then). She also approached the co-founder of Galeries Lafayette to stock it and a hundred years later No.5 has remained as one of the world’s top selling fragrances. No other perfume has achieved this legendary status. Famous fans of Chanel No.5 include Cameron Diaz, Victoria Beckham, French actress Catherine Deneuve, Melania Trump and of course Marilyn Monroe, famous for saying that Chanel No.5 was all she wore to bed (Life magazine, 1952).

Her Fashion

Coco was a revolutionary woman of her time and probably her biggest contribution to fashion was ridding women of uncomfortable bone-crushing corsets after hundreds of years, replacing them with more comfortable looser clothing styles, including trousers, another first in fashion (with her yachting trousers and introducing the 1920s dropped waistline, ala Gatsby style) and of course the Little Black Dress (see below). Intended to be affordable and easy-to-wear, Vogue rightly predicted that the LBD would be worn around the world. She then set a trend for short hair in France and Europe having cut her hair as it annoyed her.

She created many classic ‘firsts' as popular today as ever with most worldwide fashion companies imitating her style (see some great Chanel inspired pieces for all budgets on links below this article). She was the first designer to create a personalized logo with her double C logo, introduced Breton striped tops, cross-over bags (revolutionary to free up hands), ballet flats, quilted leather and large gold chains as key fashion items and she made jersey and boucle tweed become key fashion fabrics. All of these had never been in fashion before. She was innovative in her designs for example putting dark red linings in bags so it would be easier to find items, putting hidden metal chain in the bottom of her jacket linings so they hung better. This attention to detail continues today and is why Chanel has remained a staple investment for customers and will remain so for years to come.

Her love for the arts and tough times in World War II

Chanel was well known and respected in the Parisian arts world. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and counted Cocteau and Picasso amongst her friends. She had other relationships with a composer (Igor Stravinsky), a jewelry designer (Iribe) and a German Baron (Baron von Dincklage), probably not one of her best decisions... She even had a flirtation with King Edward VIII before he met the other fashion icon, Wallis Simpson.

However during World War II she had to let go 3000 employees out of her 4000 staff and kept only one of five stores open. Unfortunately in recent years it was revealed that she became a mistress to a German intelligence officer, Baron von Dincklage and was suspected of having helped out the Germans with her local knowledge. Luckily for her Winston Churchill spared her prison but she had to flee France to exile in Lausanne to escape criminal charges of collaboration. There she exiled for ten years, at the beautiful Beau-Rivage hotel by Lake Geneva where she kept a low profile. In 1954 at the age of 71 she returned to Paris and took a brave move to reopen her business and design again in a fashion world this time dominated by men. Her second collection, introducing boucle tweed suits and the LBD was a huge hit in the USA leading to her first trip to California to design for Hollywood stars including Greta Garbo. Jackie Kennedy was wearing her Chanel tweed suit when JFK was tragically assassinated in 1963.

Her Death

Many collections later, on the 10th January 1971 at the grand age of 87, Coco Chanel passed away in her suite at the Ritz, with her last words to her maid being “You see, this is how you die”. She had wished to be buried in Switzerland at the picturesque Boix-de-Vaux Cemetery, near where she previously lived in Lausanne. She had planned her own gravestone to have five lions, incorporating her lucky number and her astrological sign.

Her Legacy Today

French designer Pierre Balmain said she "always dared, always strips, never adds, there is no other beauty than the freedom of the body.". Today Virginie Viard is Chanel’s current creative director (since Karl Lagerfeld passed away in February 2019). She and her colleagues continue the legacy and relevance of Chanel for years to come. She said recently "I'm always thinking about what women would like to have in their wardrobe today". You can watch the latest beautiful Chanel Spring/Summer 2021 couture fashion show here and spot a few Chanel ambassadors in the audience, including Johnny Depp's daughter with Mum, Vanessa Paradis who modelled for Chanel in the 1990's.

And if you want to know more on Chanel's fascinating life...

I recommend reading 'The World of Coco Chanel' written by Edmonde Charles-Roux, Chanel’s official biographer and close friend. I still treasure my copy and it looks good on the coffee table! It has over 400 photos and illustrations collected over the years.

I also recommend watching these two great movies 'Coco before Chanel' (with the wonderful Audrey Tautou of Amelie) and 'Coco Chanel' with Shirley MacLaine. I admit I was not a great fan of the film 'Coco and Stravinsky' so it's not here...

Finally this is a really good short Youtube video about Chanel's challenges and successes in the USA you can watch here