Coco Chanel Essay Example for Free

coconut palm Chanel Essay coconut Chanel Coco Chanel was unity of the much or less prominent fashion externalizeers of the 20th century. Her contribution in the organic evolution of fashion washbowl hardly be underestimated. In fact, she revolutionized fashion in a way, since she was one of the commencement ceremony fashion designers who make women think of themselves first rather than think how they look for their men, which was a traditional view on effeminate fashion at the epoch. In actuality, the significance and her great contribution in the development of fashion as well as 20th century culture at large was marked by her generation as well as modern specialists. For instance, she was the only person in the field of fashion design to be named on TME Magazines 100 Most Influential People of the 20th one C (Charles-Roux, 145). In such a way, she gained a public approval and best-selling(predicate)ity which made her name one of the most recogniz equal in the fashion world. At the similar quantify, her life was quite difficult, especi all toldy during her early days and state of war time tips. In fact, she witnessed two world wars but she kept working regardless of all the problems and challenges she faced in her life.In fact, her work was her true passion she remained devoted to from her early life until the end. Gabrielle Bonheur Coco Chanel was born on August 19, 1883. She was a second daughter of travelling salesman Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle in a fine city of Saumur, France (Orecklin, 49). In fact, her family was poor and she was raised in poverty stricken neighborhood along with her pentad siblings. Remarkably, when she got her birth certificate her name misspelled Chasnel because nobody knew how to spell Chanel correctly.As a result, the mayor of the city had to ad-lib and added the letter S in her name, which later became a serious problem for her biographers, who could not trace her rootage and define genealogical tree b ecause of such an error in her name (Orecklin, 51). However, the misspelling of her name was unimpeachably not the biggest misfortune that happened to her in her early life. She lived in poverty and was practically of an opportunity to get a good education.Moreover, when she was twelve, her mother died of tuberculosis that provoked a serious psychological trauma for the child. At the same time, her father could not stay with the children all the time. He had to work to earn for living and to maintain the family, in which he was the only breadwinner. This is why Coco Chanel was sent to the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she spent s unconstipated days and where she received her basic education.In fact, it is in the monastery she learned the trade of seamstress. However, she did not spend all the time in the monastery. During the vacations she went to her relatives in a provincial city, where her female relatives taught her to run up with more flourish than t he nuns in the monastery were able to test. In such a way, her interest, her passion to design had started to develop since her childhood as she learned to sew and gradually she became very skilful in this field.At this point, it should be said that she was apparently a smart person since she managed to develop her skills and abilities to the extent that she became able not only to create traditional persist, but she proved to be able to experiment and happen new, original solutions, which were unusual for her time (Dwight, 119). However, at the early started to demonstrate her talent, which though was immature at the epoch. Nevertheless, her professional knowledge, to a significant extent, defined her further life, as her first job was the work at a local tailor, where she was employed at the age of eighteen as she left the orphanage.In fact, it was her first step in her professional career insignificant it seems to be, but noneffervescent it was very chief(prenominal) in r egard to her future professional career since she could brace hardly find a unalike work. Moreover, it was the only work where she could realize her full potential and implement her creative ideas spell developing new wear. At the same time, it should be said that she could not afford working at a tailor for a long time because she needed to realize her ideas and she wanted to create tog of her own.However, she could hardly start her own business, if she had failed to meet Etienne Balsan at the tailors shop where Coco Chanel worked. In fact, it was an occasional encounter which though outgrew into a love affair which free-spokened Chanel the way to a new, different and better life. Etienne Balsan was rich and quite influential. It is during her life with Balsan, Coco Chanel started to design hats. At first, it was just a pastime which gradually transformed into a true passion for designing new clothe items, especially hats, where she grew more and more skillful.Her early works were characterized by high originality since they were quite different from traditional hats. At the same time, the high quality of her products attracted a lot of customers, objet dart her impropriety with Balsan allowed her to engage customers representing the upper-class of the French nightclub (Charles-Roux, 210). Nevertheless, her love affair with Balsan failed to evolve into a true love. At any rate, their relationships did not last for a long period of time and Coco Chanel left Balsan, moved to Paris and took over his apartment in the French capital.In 1913, she opened her first shop, where she sold fashionable raincoats and jackets. Remarkably, the originality and quality of her wear contributed to the huge winner of her shop which allowed her to maintain relatively high standards of life and she became very prevalent in Paris, which, at the epoch, was one of the worlds centers of the fashion industry. However, the development of her business in Paris was overshadowed b y the outbreak of earth war I, which started in 1914 and affected the life of the entire country dramatically (Charles-Roux, 219).Nevertheless, Coco Chanel had never stop working and continued designing new products which still remained popular and the demand for her wear was traditionally high. only if she had to stop her business in Paris because she was deprived of all her properties. Nevertheless, Coco Chanel was not discouraged and carried on her professional work and designing became an essential part of her life. On the other hand, she could live with her ideas only. She needed property to earn to maintain living. In this regard, the assistance of Balsans friend, Arthur Boy Capel proved to be very face-saving for Coco Chanel.Their friendship evolved into a love affair which made them very close and Capel helped Coco Chanel to open a new shop in Brittany, France, which, similarly to the shop in Paris, became very popular among local customers (Weber, 35). It is worth ment ioning the fact that celebrated French actresses buy wear in Chanels shop which was very important for the promotional campaign of her shop. In fact, the interest of celebrities to her shop contributed to the growing popularity of her products and her design in France that contributed to her professional recognition, while the popularity allowed her to expand her business steadily.Due to her popularity, she managed to introduce new womens sportswear at her new dress shop in Deauville. In such a way, she could expand her business, but, what was even more important, Coco Chanel changed the philosophy of womens wear. To put it more precisely, her new design and new wear made women confident of the fact that they were speculate to dress for themselves but not for their men. In fact, it was a revolutionary philosophy for France as well as the entire world at the epoch of humanness War I, when the ominance of men was unchallengeable, while the development of feminism was still insignif icant (Charles-Roux, 248). Nevertheless, the design and new philosophy of Chanel produced a significant impact on the development of fashion and the 20th century culture at large. Remarkably, as Coco Chanel grew more and more popular she attempted to change some facts from her past. For instance, she pretended to be born in 1893, sooner of 1883, while she insisted that she confused her mother at the age of six, instead of twelve.In such a way, she created a kind of tragical image of an orphan girl, who managed to achieve a tremendous success due her talent and hard work. At the same time, such manipulations with her past evoked numerous controversies which were insurmountable for her biographers. This is why some details of her life story are still quite controversial and unclear. The 1920s were the epoch of the fast progress of Coco Chanel as a designer and her business developed successfully. Her design was really unique and her wear was very popular in France as well as in ot her countries.In this respect, it is worth mentioning the fact that her acquaintance with Vera Bate Lombardi, a daughter of Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge and Duke of Teck, became of a paramount importance for Chanels empire. In fact, Vera Lombardi became Chanels muse and public relations liaison to a number of European royal families, including the British royal family. Her acquaintance with representatives of royal families and upper-classes contributed to her empire growth in power.As a result, before World War II, Chanels was one of the most influential designers in Europe as well as the world, because Europe, especially Paris, where Coco Chanel resided in the Hotel Ritz Paris, was the heart of the worlds fashion design (Barringer, 28). However, World War II forced Coco Chanel to stop her work and business. Nevertheless, she remained in Paris even during the German occupation. This period in her life was probably the most controversial because, after the war, she was repeatedly accused of collaborationism.For instance, she was suspected of having a love affair with a German officer and Nazi soy Hans Gunther von Dinklage. Moreover, she was even arrested after the war but she escaped the t rial after the interference of the British royal family, but she was forced to move to Switzerland where she lived until 1954. In 1954, she returned to Paris where she renewed her work and her business, but her new collection did not have much success with the Parisians and French because they believe Chanel to be a collaborationist, which produced a negative impact on her public image.Nevertheless, in spite of the failure in France, Chanel had open a new market, the USA, where her wear became extremely popular and the USA became her main market in the post-World War II period. On the other hand, even though the USA was the main market for Chanels Empire, Coco Chanel, herself, had never left Paris and stayed in this city until her death on 10 January 1971. She died at the age of 88 in her private admit in the Ritz Hotel Paris and she was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland (Charles-Roux, 341).Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to close up that Coco Chanel was a very influential fashion designer. She had changed the traditional view on womens wear and she had changed the womens philosophy in regard to the wear. She was one of the first designers who made women think of themselves above all, instead of thinking of their men when they choose the clothes. At the same time, her personality is still quite controversial because, in spite of a huge popularity before World War II, she failed to regain the popularity in France after the war.