Coco Chanel: Rise, Fall and Revival

“May my legend prosper and thrive, wish it a long and a happy life!” Coco Chanel.

To live a life of choices and worth, of definition and audacity, of love and afflatus is being Chanel.

Chanel as we know is a high fashion house that specialises in haute couture and ready-to-wear clothes, luxury goods and fashion accessories. What is intriguing about the brand is that each element of the designs is inspired or in many way is a direct depiction of incidents from Gabrielle Coco Chanel’s real life experiences. Liberating women’s corseted silhouettes and popularizing a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style was Chanel’s aim. The House of Chanel is known for the “little black dress” (1926), the perfume No. 5 de Chanel (1921), the Chanel suit and it’s use of jersey, tweed fabric.

models TwoFlappers-Little-Black-Dresses-copy 330px-CHANEL_No5_parfum Chanel had many admirers throughout her lifetime of which she turned most into business opportunities. In 1908, Chanel began an affair with Captain Arthur Edward ‘Boy’ Capel who indeed helped her open her first shops.

She introduced her early designs during the first World War were the need of shortening and liberating silhouettes was felt. The emancipating and unseen lengths of Chanel and the use of black color had become the ultimate requirement of that time. The brand experienced it’s peak of success in 1935 after the tweed inspired by Duke of Westminster’s attire became a part of other iconic creations such as the Chanel No. 5, No.22, cigarette pants and the Little Black Dress. With 4000 employees and 5 boutiques, Chanel was in great competition with designer and couturier Elsa Schiaparelli.

In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Gabrielle decided abruptly to shut 4 of the stores leaving the employees jobless. She stated that ‘it was not a time for fashion.’ During the war, Haus Gunther von Dincklage, despite the fact that it was treason to consort with members of the occupying German force in Paris, had become Coco’s admirer. She was in turn rumored to have served as a Nazi agent in Operation Modellhut that was aimed to result into an alliance between the British and German. The House of Chanel was entirely left out to vanish until after 15 years when Gabrielle Chanel felt the time was right for her to re-enter the fashion world. Today the brand with a legacy of inspirational designs continues to thrive at the highest of achievements under Karl Lagerfeld. He has successfully survived the vision of Gabrielle Chanel in the creations and the House of Chanel remains to be a reflection of Coco Chanel.