Birthday quote 19th August

Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. She was the founder and namesake of the Chanel brand. Along with Paul Poiret, Chanel was credited in the post-World War I era with liberating women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularising a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing, realising her design aesthetic in jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product. She is the only fashion designer listed on TIME magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Chanel designed her iconic interlocked-CC monograph, meaning Coco Chanel, using it since the 1920s.

Chanel worked as a seamstress, singer and was mistress to Étienne Balsan and Captain Arthur Edward Capel before becoming a licensed milliner in 1910, when she opened a boutique in Paris, named Chanel Modes. In 1913, Chanel opened a boutique in Deauville, financed by Arthur Capel, where she introduced deluxe casual clothes suitable for leisure and sport. The location was a good one, in the centre of town on a fashionable street. Here Chanel sold hats, jackets, sweaters, and the marinière, the sailor blouse.

Chanel opened an establishment in Biarritz in 1915. The business proved to be so lucrative that in 1916 Chanel was able to reimburse Capel his original investment. By 1919, Chanel was registered as a couturière and established her maison de couture at 31 rue Cambon, Paris.

Chanel was known for her lifelong determination, ambition, and energy which she applied to her professional and social life. She achieved both financial success as a businesswoman and catapulted to social prominence in French high society, thanks to the connections she made through her work. These included many artists and craftspeople to whom she became a patron.

Her social connections appeared to encourage a highly conservative personal outlook. Rumours arose about Chanel's activities in the course of the German occupation of France during World War II, and she was criticised for being too comfortable with the Germans but never thoroughly investigated. One of Chanel's liaisons was with a German diplomat, Baron (Freiherr) Hans Günther von Dincklage. After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. After several years in Switzerland after the war, she returned to Paris and revived her fashion house. In 2011, Hal Vaughan published a book on Chanel based on newly declassified documents of that era, revealing that she had collaborated with Germans in intelligence activities. One plan in late 1943 was for her to carry an SS separate peace overture to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to end the war.

Born 19th August 1883 in Saumur, France
Died 10th January 1971 in Paris, France

A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.

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