2. Introduction
• Gabrielle "Coco" Bonheur Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10
January 1971) was a French fashion designer and founder of
the Chanel brand.
• She was the only fashion designer to appear
on Time magazine's list of the most influential people of the
20th century.
• A prolific fashion creator, Chanel's influence extended beyond
couture clothing. Her design aesthetic was realized in
jewelry, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel
No. 5, has become an iconic product.
3. Early life
The Chanel family did not have money.
When Gabrielle was twelve, her mother died of tuberculosis, and her
father disappeared.
Family relatives brought her at the monastery, and
when she became 18, she left the orphanage.
4. • She found a job as a shopkeeper specializing in the lines and
wares. Later she became a singer and dancer in a music hall,
where she got the name Coco.
5. Career/Life Path
• While working at a tailoring shop she met and soon began an affair with
Etienne Balsan.
• Coco left Etienne and took over his apartment in Paris.
• In 1908 she began selling hats from the basement shop in
Etienne’s apartment.
• She was forced to close her shop.
• 1910 she opened second shop funded by boy Capel in Cambon, Paris.
• In 1916 Coco Chanel became the first designer to create loose
women’s clothing using jersey.
6.
7. Death
• Coco Chanel died of a heart attack in her private suite at the
Hotel Ritz Paris on 10 January 1971, at the age of 87. She
was buried in Switzerland and her tombstone is carved with
lion heads representing her birth sign, Leo.
8. Chanel Logo
The Chanel logo, designed by Coco Chanel herself in 1925, consists of two
interlocked and opposing letters “C” for her name, “Coco Chanel”.
10. Fashions that Chanel Introduced
to the world
• LITTLE BLACK DRESS
• All the famous innovations in fashion and design cannot outshine the fame of the
single Chanel Little Black Dress. Coco Chanel introduced it in a time between the
wars, when the bright colors, prints and heavy embroideries dominated the
fashion.
• The Chanel little black dress became a symbol of chic and sophisticated simplicity.
12. CHANEL No.5
• It was in 1921, that Coco Chanel had created the single most famous perfume
in history, Chanel No.5.
• Chanel N.5 is the first designer perfume
13. • The designer, who was rarely seen without a heaping pile of pearls around her
neck, designed costume jewelry made from chains, beads, and glass that was
meant to be worn with her casual daytime sportswear as early as the 1930s.
COSTUME JEWELRY
15. Trousers
• Chanel, who decided that women should enjoy the same freedoms as men, and
that binding corsets and skirts were physically holding them back. "I gave women
a sense of freedom," she once said.
• "I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to
fashion's finery, lace, corsets, underclothes, padding.“
17. The “Roots” of Chanel Business
• Coco Chanel sought financial help from Pierre Wertheimer to market a fragrance she
had developed in 1921
• Pierre Wertheimer funded the venture and retained a 70 percent ownership share in
the Perfume company. Coco Chanel only got a 10 percent cut.
18. Karl Lagerfeld
• In 1983 Karl Lagerfeld took over as chief designer for
Chanel. Like Chanel, he looked into the past as
inspiration for his designs. He incorporated the Chanel
fabrics and detailing such as tweed, gold accents, and
chains. Lagerfeld kept what was signature for Chanel
but also helped bring the brand into today.
19. • Today, under the guidance of designer Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel remains not
only one of the oldest, but also one of the world's most prestigious fashion
houses still active.
• A tribute to her unique vision, the designs of the woman who carried fashion
into the 20th century promise to remain just as popular well into the 21st
century.
Chanel Today
