Chanel

The incredible destiny of Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Chanel was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, in August 1883. She was the daughter of a traveling merchant and the eldest of five children. Her mother died when she was just 14 years old and her father abandoned her. He left her in the care of the Aubazine orphanage in Corrèze. It was there that she learned to sew. When she left the orphanage, at the age of 18, she worked as a “cousette”, doing some tailoring here and there, and making ends meet by pushing the song. It was there that he was given the nickname Coco. Then, she fell in love with a certain Étienne Balsan, a millionaire gentleman who introduced her to the world of luxury. Thanks to him, Gabrielle Chanel met many of her future clients. She opened her first workshop in 1909 in a bachelor apartment on Boulevard Malesherbes. Quickly recognized for her elegance and simplicity, she opened her own boutique a year later on rue Cambon, in Paris. Rather against the grain of her time, Gabrielle Chanel did not hesitate to reveal a little more the body of women, shortening their skirts and installing pants. Thanks to her, a new femininity was born. What is more, it would soon be matched with a sumptuous perfume…

La parfumerie de Chanel

In 1921, Coco Chanel declared that a "woman without perfume is a woman no future. »Thus, she had an essence developed to sublimate her outfits. For this, she called on the talent of Ernest Beaux who offered her five fragrances. She chose the fifth and decided to name it Chanel n ° 5, launching her collection in a surge of superstitions on May 5, the fifth day of the fifth month of the year. Nevertheless, the dedication actually came one day in 1954 when a curious reporter asked Marilyn Monroe what she was wearing to sleep. She replied: "Just a few drops of No. 5". It became Chanel's best advertising phrase and started the myth. Since that day, the house of Chanel has not stopped developing ever more luxurious fragrances. It incorporates the finest ingredients in the world. In addition, competition from Christian Dior has never ceased to push forward the audacity and creativity of the house of Chanel.

Although today managed by Karl Lagarfeld under the leadership of Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, Coco Chanel has always based its philosophy on a maxim of its founder: “Fashion goes out of fashion, style never. This has earned him the admiration of the greatest personalities in the world like Romy Schneider, Jeanne Moreau, Jackie Kennedy or, more recently, Audrey Tautou. Moreover, the latter was even responsible for playing the stylist in her debut in Anne Fontaine's film "Coco Avant Chanel".