In the first of a series of articles on the great shapers of contemporary style, Sonya introduces the French designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. --------------------
There are many significant shapers of style who have greatly influenced contemporary fashion. One who, without doubt, is at the top of the list is Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, the great designer from World War I to the 1960s; feminist, socialite and founder of the couture house of Chanel.
"Of all of the 20th century women of style, she was the greatest. Alone of these women, she not only defined her time, she transcended it" - The Power of Style, by A Tapert and D Edkins (1994).
Chanel is considered to be a significant influence on modern style, because her imprint on fashion today is still visible and because the woman that she was then is still relevant to, and identifiable with, the women of today.
Regarding her fashion influence, many classics and fashion moments are associated with Chanel: the abolition of the corset, the little black dress, bobbed hair, the colour beige, backless shoes, women's trousers and costume jewellery - to name a few.
Yet few, if any, are correctly credited as her invention. Women's trousers, for example, were in fact introduced by couturier Paul Poiret in 1906.
But what is significant is that she made these things fashionable and accessible through her designs and by the power of her image and the person she represented to women in the years following World War I.
pandora style beads "Chanel was someone who, because her image was so powerful, was able to popularise whatever she wore. She not only looked modern, she had a very modern - and public - personal life that seemed to epitomise what 1920s women aspired to be: free to choose their lovers, to work if they wanted to, to follow their instincts but still maintain a healthy element of feminine mystique." - Fashion: The Century of the Designer, by C Seeling (2000).
Ahead of her time, Chanel was one of the first true celebrity designers. And unlike the clothes of fellow couturiers, her clothes were designed and made for the modern woman, who wanted to be comfortable in clothes that would meet the demands of the "new" lifestyle of women.
"(Chanel's clothes were) created to be worn in comfort and without constricting corsets, liberating women with loosely fitting garments. Her style is that of uncluttered simplicity incorporating practical details. She dressed the modern woman in clothes for a lifestyle" - The St James Fashion Encyclopaedia: A Survey of Style from 1945 to the Present, edited by Richard Martin (1997).
Though her designs may be conservative in our eyes, in her time Chanel was a rule breaker and leader. She would have been seen by some as radical, controversial, and perhaps even immoral, for she applied unconventional approaches to inspiration, design and construction in her clothes. She was supremely innovative. She "ceaselessly borrowed ideas from the male wardrobe, combining masculine tailoring with women's clothing" and "designed cardigan suits made of wool jersey which at the time was a fabric mainly used for underwear." - St James Fashion Encyclopedia; Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Best Rolex Watches Online Century Volume II.
But perhaps most profoundly significant about Coco Chanel, in my humble researching of her life and style influence, is that, rather than creating clothes to suit the image of a feminine ideal as both earlier and lat
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