I know I have touched on this subject many times, but it is definitely something that resonates with me. Just like last week’s post where I ranted about how fashion can be viewed as art and as a medium that holds its own, today my post is inspired by the same concept. And Coco Chanel.
The name Chanel is synonymous with pearls, luxury, sweet perfume and the classic quilt bags with the the interlocked C logo. Chanel, however, was also a woman. Gabrielle Chanel, born Gabrielle Chasnel, was the original power woman. Born to a launder woman mother and a traveling salesman father in France in 1883, Chanel’s mother died at the age of 12 and Gabrielle was sent away with her three sisters to an orphanage while her two brothers were sent to work on a farm. Chanel is infamous for lying about her past, never acknowledging the fact that she was an orphan; instead she referred to the nuns who helped raise her as her aunts. Chanel not only created a sort of backstory for herself, she also created a new era for women. Chanel started off as a hat maker, creating pieces for herself and eventually opening up a shop. This little business expanded into what would be the most successful fashion house in history.
Chanel became one of the largest and most noteworthy designers in Paris, creating beautiful and original styles that had never been seen before. We can thank Chanel for the fact that women wear pants, for the fact we can wear jersey and knit fabrics and for the fact that flappers exist.
Chanel claims she invented the flapper, and perhaps she did; after all, she did create the drop waist, tubular dresses that flappers wore and she was responsible for bringing the bob into fashion. Chanel singlehandedly gave women the key to fashion as self-expression; she liberated women from the rigid designs that men had created to establish an ideal image for women to uphold. Chanel literally climbed every social construct and every social ladder to become one of the most famous women in the world. She created glamour, Chanel No. 5 and she gave women freedom.
Chanel was the first woman to truly use fashion as means of art, as a way to express herself and help give a voice to other women; she designed for the ballets and the world that she wanted to live in. So, next time you’re inspired to wear pants or a jersey shirt or maybe even a long pearl necklace, take a second and appreciate the woman who made it all possible.