Childhood
Born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, France, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was the illegitimate daughter of a shop girl and a street peddler who would know little of the comforts of a stable family life. Her mother died when Chanel was twelve years old. One week later she was abandoned by her father, who left her to be raised by the nuns in a provincial orphanage. School vacations were spent with relatives in the provincial capital of Moulins where Gabrielle learnt to sew with more flourish than the nuns at the monastery had been able to teacher her.
Later when questioned, Chanel would claim that when her mother died, her father sailed for America and she was sent to live with two cold-hearted spinster aunts. She even claimed to have been born in 1893 as opposed to 1883, and that her mother had died when Coco was six instead of twelve. All this was done to diminish the stigma that poverty, orphanhood, and illegitimacy bestowed upon unfortunates in nineteenth-century France.
Beginning of Her Career
Several years passed at school before the young girl would try to make a start. At first she began as a shopkeeper specializing in linens and small wares. But, Chanel was bored with the simplicity of her surroundings and decided to pursue a life of excitement and stardom. She would try to sing and dance, with an idea to make a career in the theatre. These attempts would not bring her any luck, with an exception to the nickname Coco acquired at that time. The nickname "Coco" had been given to her by her audience for her songs Ko Ko Ri Ko and Qui qua vu Coco.
While singing didnt prove to be Chanels forte, the experience was valuable in that it introduced her to Etienne Balsan, a gentlemen horse breeder and riding enthusiast, and accepted his proposal to live together. She would enjoy her life in a castle, even though she would never get used to her position of an official mistress. What did she really want? To make a career for herself as a milliner. She approached Balsan with a business proposition. With more money than he knew what to do with, Balsan decided to give Chanel the money she needed to open up her own hat and dress shop in Paris.
It was a small boutique with just two teenage girls as employees, but Chanels first venture into the world of fashion proved successful. She became one of the popular go-to ladies for the well to do of Paris. It wouldnt be long before Chanel was moving on to bigger and brighter things, turning her single little store into one of the most powerful empires in the fashion industry.
The Beauty Magnate: Chanel Leaves Her Mark
Chanel was beginning to make a name for herself among the whos who of Paris all the while acquiring a taste for their luxuries and decadent lifestyle. With her modest hat and dress store, Chanels reputation was already beginning to grow as a woman who had little interest in the extravagant and tight-fitting clothes that were all the rage at the time. Instead, she opted for darker and simpler dresses that drew their inspiration from mens clothing as well as the outfits of the nuns she had grown up around.
With her new taste of the opulent life, Chanel decided to leave Balsan and link onto the arm of his friend, a wealthy businessman by the name of Arthur Boy Capel. The two would go on to enjoy a passionate affair until Capels life was cut short by a car accident while on his way to see Chanel in 1919. But, in their early days together, it would be Capel who helped get Chanels career off the ground. He provided the financing for Chanel to open an additional two boutiques in Biarritz and Deauville.
In no more than four years, Chanels business had become so successful that she was able to pay back the startup money she had initially received from Capel in full this, despite the fact that it was given to her as a gift, not a loan. Chanel had broken into the fashion industry by being a trendsetter, gaining inspiration for her designs largely from her lovers closet and using traditionally masculine materials to make them.
Coco Chanel received the attention of high-born, aristocratic suitors, like Grand Duke Dimitri of Russia and Duke of Westminster. She was surrounded by the crème de la crème of the society, the most famous women and men of her time.
At the age of fifty-five, Coco Chanel was in the prime of her beauty. Her face, like her figure, had reached their ultimate refinement. She had never dressed with more invention or with a greater perfection. At that time she was the most admired and most invited People proved to be more interested in her face photographers were passionate about it. These were the golden years in Coco Chanel's biography...
During World War II, Chanel closed down her business. She decided there was no time for fashion and began a relationship with a German officer; she was arrested in September 1944, at the order of the Committee of Public Morals. A few hours later, she was released, but shortly thereafter, she left for Switzerland, where she lived for almost ten years.
She thought her years as a designer were finished and she stayed out the spotlight until 1954, when at the age of 71, Chanel decided to make a comeback. To this day, nobody knows if she returned because she was bored or if she wanted to reclaim her territory amongst the growing competition. But, it didnt matter Chanel was back.
Chanel made a decision to restart her business. She was at that time more than 70 years old. On February 5, 1954 (5th chosen by her as her lucky number) the reopening took place. She received a lukewarm reception in Europe, where her designs were not perceived as being as revolutionary as they once were. Americans thought otherwise and embraced Chanel with open arms. Europe would follow soon after. Chanel quickly climbed back to her position at the top of the fashion ladder and continued to innovate and create designs until her death at the age of 88.
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