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Coco Chanel

By Olyanna

  • young age

    young age
    Coco Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. At age 12, after her mother’s death, Chanel was put in an orphanage by her father, who worked as a peddler.

  • the beginning of her career

    the beginning of her career
    She opened her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910. Chanel started out selling hats. Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them. Chanel became a popular figure in Parisian literary and artistic worlds.

  • second shop

    second shop
    she opens her second shop

  • Chanel NO.5.

    Chanel NO.5.
    This perfume was one of the most expensive perfumes in the world at that time. It was so expensive because she blended almost more than 80 different scents.

  • personal life

    personal life
    Around 1923, she met the wealthy Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, aboard his yacht. The two started a decades-long relationship. In response to his marriage proposal, which she turned down, she reportedly said, “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!”

  • black dress and suit

    black dress and suit
    In 1925, Chanel introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. She helped women say goodbye to the days of corsets and other confining garments. Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for evening wear.

  • closing down her shops

    closing down her shops
    The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on Chanel's company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led her to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops.

  • Neiman Marcus Fashion Award

    Neiman Marcus Fashion Award
    1957 - Coco Chanel receiving a fashion award from Stanley Marcus in Dallas, Texas.

  • death

    death
    On 10 January 1971, after returning from a walk with her friend Claude Baillen, Coco Chanel died on her bed in the Hotel Ritz. Her last words to her maid Celine were, “You see, this is how you die.”