Koko hid her birth year for years. First, because he wanted to be the same age as the twentieth century and was born 17 years before it started. Being young in your 20s, dancing Charleston, Chanel No. I wanted to invent 5, the little black dress, the elegant woman of the 30s, create my own costumes in the 50s and retire in the 60s. Few have achieved this, but Chanel is the most popular female fashion designer in the world of the twentieth century. No single fashion designer can compare to her worldwide fame, no matter how much she wants it.
Only one thing is embarrassing – his birthday, August 19, coincided with the day of the death of his beloved friend Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev. And after his death in 1929, he refused to celebrate his birthday.
Her path to fashion was very thorny. Coco started out as a cafeteria singer in a city called Moulin. She bottled mineral water in the city of Vichy. She received her primary education at a convent school in Aubazine, France. I have never had drawing, professional sewing or modeling training. However, she could have created the first world fashion empire.
His greatest advantage was his endless dedication and pleasure to work. The taste is very simple – he liked minimal color. White, black, green, brown are her favorite combinations. And, of course, in this simplicity that the convent nuns grew up in, he created many important, comfortable women’s items. Most often, knitted fabric is used, which is currently the main material for creating all the clothes in the world.
An interesting fact is that Chanel had many hobbies. Men helped her in life, but none of them wanted to marry her. And none of them helped her have a baby. Chanel had very interesting life partners. The first is Chanel No., as it introduced her to Moscow perfumer Ernest Bo from the Rallet factory in Moscow. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov, who helped create 5 perfumes, now called “Liberty”. He developed this fragrance. Then his romance with the Duke of Westminster, an English aristocrat who not only opened the doors of his palaces, but also his passion for English and Scottish fabrics and ornaments. Thus tweed – a typical English fabric – became the main fabric of most of his outerwear.
His long friendship with Sergei Diaghilev helped him design three productions for the Russian ballet. Due to her close collaboration with the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Romanova and her workshop Kitmir, she was also very impressed by the theme of Russian embroidery, which is often included in her designs.
The manager of the Chanel house was Prince Sergei Kutuzov, grandson of the famous commander Kutuzov. The artistic director was Russian model Iya Grigoryevna Ge, who was married to Lady Abdi. In other words, Chanel had a very international social circle. He was open to the world, traveled a lot, worked in three films in Hollywood. And he often worked with fashion models from Georgia and the famous artist from Tbilisi, Ilya Zdanevich, who created fabrics with printed ornamental patterns for him.
Chanel’s main competitor was Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Their encounters are legendary. In 1940, when Germany invaded France, Coco had to close her home, seeing the hard days approaching. However, he left the fashion world, where he had never worked for 14 years, and unfortunately connected with the occupying forces of Germany. This is the saddest, tragic page of his life. And her love affair with a German officer, whose name was Walter Günther von Dinklage, during the war years, unfortunately turned out to be a very gloomy page in her life. In 1944, Coco escaped French justice in Switzerland and settled in Lausanne. And when rival Schiaparelli went bankrupt in 1954, Chanel sponsors returned to high fashion with the Weitheimer brothers’ money.
This turn initially caused hostility and criticism from the general public, but a year later Coco was again believed, and the famous Chanel suits became bestsellers. Many celebrities of this era, including Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Grace of Monaco, wore such costumes. Its success is absolutely amazing. And this is not only the abundance of various forms of clothing, but also new fragrances, cosmetics, jewelry.
Chanel was already aged, she was well over 70, but she continued to work and reach new heights. And the first searches that heralded the collapse of the Chanel house were associated with the invention of the miniskirt, which Chanel despised. For her, miniature and exposed elbows were the perfect sign of a woman without grace, certainly not her age. Therefore, by the end of the sixth decade, Chanel’s house began to lose its popularity and was even labeled as a home for elderly clients.
His death in 1971 came after he was expelled from Parliament. But time heals. The new art directors, especially Karl Lagerfeld, who took over the house in 1983, not only boosted Chanel’s sales but helped even young people fall in love with the brand.
Today, Chanel is one of the wealthiest brands widely sold all over the world. And despite the closure of the boutique in Russia, it is popular with the Russian new elite. And I appreciate his contribution to the fashion world because he brought simplicity, clarity of lines, comfort, patch pockets, faux pearls and details, especially black toes to shoes that millions love so much that even today almost every woman in the world wants it. To have thought of something with the Chanel brand.
I congratulate this unique woman on her birthday and wish her a glass of Riesling, her favorite wine that she drinks almost daily in the afterlife, and one of her favorite cigarettes called Camel. Those who love Chanel, raise a glass today, definitely remember this unique worker from the depths of the people, who has nothing to do with the elite, but achieves his goal and is literally an elitist. .