How Chanel revolutionized women's fashion:
Fashion icon Gabrielle Chanel has embodied absolute elegance since the age of 18. After a short stint on the music scene, her true love, Arthur Capel, nicknamed “Boy”, convinced her to start designing hats, and in 1910 opened a milliner’s salon at the legendary number 21 rue Cambon in Paris. Following her success, she opened a second boutique in Deauville in 1913, followed by a third in Biarritz in 1915, all key destinations of the Belle Epoque.
Ambitious and encouraged by her success, Coco Chanel wanted to give a new allure to her company. for women, combining elegance, ease and simplicity. Her milliner’s store in Biarritz becomes a springboard for haute couture. She opened her sewing in 1915.
Blending masculine and feminine touches, Coco Chanel modernized and liberated the female body, adopting an androgynous allure. The marked waist will be put aside, giving way to straight dresses and suits, still reserved for men.
A journey, an inspiration:
During a trip to Scotland with the Duke of Westminster, Gabrielle Chanel discovered the tweed, a carded wool fabric that’s flexible and highly resistant. Back in France, she imagined a a wrap skirt and a straight-cut tweed jacket, all designed to restrict designed not to restrict movement.
Inspired by Austrian military uniforms, Gabrielle Chanel had the idea of creating supple, lightweight suits especially for women .In contrast to Christian Dior’s New-look, the small jacket is not stiffened by multiple interlinings; the lining and fabric are cut from the same panels, allowing the jacket to move with the body and ensuring a supple fall, thanks in particular to the hem plumbed with a gold chain.
His success was immediate. Many celebrities, including Brigitte Bardot and Romy Schneider, adopted it .Since then, the essential little black Chanel jacket, constantly reinvented with each new collection, has become one of the symbols of French elegance.
Gabrielle Chanel wanted a garment that was easy to put on, so she decided to introduce a buttonhole on the front. a precious, finely crafted object. With four pockets, the two bottom ones were designed to accommodate hands, while Gabrielle Chanel designed the top ones to accommodate put away his cigarettes and glasses. Once imagined in black, the color of mourning, this jacket echoes the little black dress created in 1926, far from the bright colors of the 60s.
