ANCIENT& not so ancient WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective

December 1, 2005

"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone."

- Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (1883 - 1971) 

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel claimed a birth date of 1893 and a birthplace of Auvergne; she was actually born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur. Her mother worked in the poorhouse where Gabrielle was born, and died when Gabrielle was only six, leaving her father with five children whom he abandoned to the care of relatives.

Gabrielle was raised in the province of Auvergne by her two aunts. Her aunts tried to teach her that little girls should sew, sit up straight and speak politely. Coco chose horseback riding, speaking her mind, and strategic relationships with wealthy men.

In 1899 at the age of 16, she left for Paris with Etienne Balsan, a millionaire cavalry officer who introduced her to the tastes of the wealthy. She adopted the name Coco for "Little Pet" during her career as a cafe and concert singer from 1905-1908.

Her complete dislike for ostrich-boa-draped hats and her new contacts among women of society, lead her to set up a millinery (the craft of making hats) shop in Paris in 1910. As she expanded to Deauville and Biarritz, she led women's fashions into casual, practical clothing that borrowed fabrics and attitudes from men's fashion. Chanel dressed in “mannish” clothes, and adapted these comfortable and liberating fashions for women. A majority of her designs were based on practicality. "There is time for work and time for love." said Coco Chanel. "That leaves no other time."  

During the 1920s, Arthur Capel, a wealthy English polo player whose lavish gifts of jewels served as the foundation of Coco’s astonishing collection, courted Chanel. The blazer he lent to her on a cold day at the polo grounds became the inspiration for her box jacket. She expanded her fashion business to include a couture house, her own textile factory and a line of perfumes. Her relaxed fashions, short skirts, and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset fashions popular from previous decades.

Introduced in 1923 as the first perfume to bear a designer's name and in its Art Deco bottle, Chanel No. 5 became popular very quickly. In 1924, Pierre Wertheimer became her partner in the perfume business and lover. Wertheimer owned 70% of the company and Coco Chanel owned 10% with 20% of the ownership belonging to another friend of hers. In terms of profit, Chanel No. 5 was a form of liquid gold for all the partners.

Coco Chanel introduced her cardigan jacket in 1925 and her versatile, semi-formal "little black dress" in 1926. She was the first to introduce black as a fashion color and it became another Chanel trademark and fashion standard.

During this time, she was courted by one of the richest men in Europe, the Duke of Westminster. While she accepted most of his jewelry gifts – she had them copied, setting off the costume-jewelry industry - she did not accept his wedding proposal. With a personal fortune rumored to be close to $15 million, most of it the result of Chanel No. 5, Chanel figured she had little to gain with marriage. Her explanation was, "There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel."

Chanel’s clothes were as high-priced as any Paris couturier's, but unlike most of the designers, Chanel delighted in having her styles copied and made accessible at a lower cost to millions. "I am not an artist," she insisted. "I want my dresses to go out on the street." Because of her straightforward design and because the fabric was standard, they were easy and cheap to copy and produce. Yet even a copy of a Chanel brought a hefty price.

In 1938, with the war coming on and the Italian designer Schiaparelli moving in on the fashion front, Chanel retired. For the next 15 years, she shuttled between Vichy and Switzerland. Chanel's affair during World War II with a German officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage, resulted in additional years of diminished popularity and an exile of sorts to Switzerland. It did provide her permission to reside in the Ritz Hotel when passing through Paris.

She returned to reopen her Paris salon in 1954 to boost lagging perfume sales. Her name still had "disgraced" attached to it, and her jersey-and-tweed suits received a cool reception from the European press, but soon nearly every knockoff house was competing to turn out the closest replica and her designs became some of the most popular in the western world, especially in the United States. She introduced pea jackets and bell-bottom trousers for women. Chanel came up with the bell-bottom idea to make it easier to climb in and out of gondolas and in doing so started the pants revolution. After singeing her hair, she cut it off completely, made an appearance at the Paris Opera, and started the craze for bobbed hair. A Chanel idea always commanded attention and a following.

In the 1960s, Coco focused on refinements for her classic short, straight, collarless jacket, slightly flaring skirt, and hems that remained knee length and of high quality. Her innovations have been the foundations for generations of women: jersey suits and dresses, pleated skirts, turtleneck sweaters, strapless dresses, the draped turban, the chemise, the jumper, the cardigan suit, the blazer, the little black dress, the sling pump, and the trench coat.

Despite severe arthritis, she was still working in 1971 when she died on January the 10th. Wearing her trademark broad-brimmed Breton hat and scissors hanging from a ribbon around her neck, she would feel for defects as she worked down the line of models.

Her fashion empire at her death brought in over $160 million a year. The Wertheimers continue to control the perfume company today, and most of her fashions have had enormous staying power with little change from generation to generation.  Her clients included the best-dressed women of the 20th century: Princess Grace, Queen Fabiola, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Kennedy, the Rothschilds, Princess Di, and the Rockefellers.  She was on a first-name basis with many who marked the century: Cocteau, Colette, Diaghilev, Dali, and Picasso. At the time of her death, the woman Picasso termed "the most sensible in the world" had a Paris wardrobe consisting of only three outfits.

Since her death the Coco Chanel Company has been under the direction of designer Karl Lagerfeld.

As a business woman she capitalized on relationships (contacts and financing), relinquished control to finance an already successful product (Chanel No. 5), committed wholeheartedly to brand (Chanel No. 5, Coco, refusing marriage to Duke), followed her instincts (hats, pants, bell bottoms, box jacket), innovated based on practicality (pants, little black dress, designs, jackets), responded to customer interest (costume jewelry, Chanel No. 5, pants) and capitalized on prior successes (refinements in the 60's, Chanel No. 5 focus after the war).

Wishing you insight and practicality on the path to your next innovation.

Sincerely,