The deeds of Coco Chanel are well known. At least everyone has heard her name. In a nutshell: she made life easier for women, saving them from extra clothes and thereby allowing you to feel as alive, mobile and free as men. She made fashionable a short women's haircut and came up with a "bell hat". She released the world's first artificial perfume ...
Her main creation is the "little black dress". Having invented it, she instantly canceled tight corsets, fluffy skirts, ruffles and fancy hairstyles - in general, everything that fettered a woman.
Coco created a completely different fashion, completely a new style...
This style was a response to the demand of the time and instantly became a symbol of elegance. A handbag with a thin strap, a women's sailor suit, women's trousers and plaid skirts... simple shapes, clear lines that emphasize the dignity and hide the flaws of the figure ... Much of what has become everyday for women today was invented and created by Coco Chanel.
Coco's creations are known, but ... not everyone knows anything reliable about her.
Her life was a consistent and often quite conscious dissolution in fantasies. Persistent denial of the realities of her own (and not only her own) life for the sake of moving into a world that seemed to her ideal and perfect. She walked the path of self-denial, and this path invariably led her to self-affirmation. It was the road to eternity - through death.
Word to Salvador Dali: "Coco Chanel told me:" The man of legend is doomed to dissolve himself in myth - and thereby strengthen the myth. She herself did just that. I invented everything for myself - a family, a biography, a date of birth and even a name.
As a child, Gabrielle Chanel began to show independence, willfulness and some oddities. For example, she loved to spend time in the cemetery. There she was looking for friends: she chose two graves and began to look after them and communicate with the people buried in it. And then she buried her old dolls in this cemetery and buried her father's gifts - the most precious thing she had. So six-seven-year-old Gabrielle created her own world, her kingdom, her reality, in which she was the queen. This childish flirtation with death, with non-existence as an ontological category that does not deny being, but forms it, will come back to haunt her more than once in her life.
Since childhood, she has been inventing a different biography for herself. For example, she claimed that she was born in 1893, in Auvergne, although documentary evidence has been preserved that this happened 10 years earlier in the town of Saumur ...
The family was poor - his father, a cheerful reveler salesman, drank everything away, his mother, a consumptive housewife, forgave him everything and died at the age of 33. In 1895, Gabrielle and her two sisters were sent to an orphanage (her father had no time for them). At the orphanage, Gabrielle continued to create her world. She kept hoping that her father would take her away and talked about it with other girls. And when they tried to be ironic, hinting at the fact that he never even visits her, Gabrielle explained that he simply did not have time. And she told the story that her father owned huge vineyards and lived in New York where the wine is exported. Of course, he is too busy to come to this miserable village...
The result of these fantasies is this: we know very little about early years Coco Chanel. Recently released on screens Feature Film about this period of her life - another confirmation of this. The film is called "Coco before Chanel" (Coco avant Chanel). In the role of Coco - Audrey Tautou, well known to the public from leading role in the movie Amelie. The plot revolves around the events of Gabrielle Chanel's youth. Here is what Audrey Tautou says about this: “It is difficult for us to find out anything reliable about her youth. She was a big liar and didn't want people to know anything about her early years." The result is complete freedom for the imagination of the screenwriter, director and film crew. Fantasies envelop Coco even after death ...
After leaving the orphanage and the monastery institute of Our Lady (where she was brought up after the orphanage and where, perhaps, her desire for rigor and simplicity in clothes comes from), she began working in a sewing store in the city of Moulin, and free time spent in an institution called "Rotonda". Moulins was a garrison town. The officers lived there. Many of them were noble and wealthy. Cafeshantan (that is, a cafe with a stage) "Rotonda" was a favorite place for their gatherings. Gabrielle became a favorite of the officers - they were attracted by her charisma and unusual appearance: a tight black braid braided around her head and strangely burning eyes. She was not like others, she created her own world, and this was her strength.
One day in the Rotunda, Gabrielle drank champagne and suddenly decided that her future was to become famous singer. She loved to sing before that - in the institute choir, but she never performed on the stage. The officers supported the idea and immediately agreed with the director of the Rotunda about concerts. Fantasy burst into life, and Gabrielle, blushing and stammering, really began to perform. Many people liked it. The songs "Ko Ko Ri Ko" and "Qui qua vu Coco" were especially popular with the officers. She was often called for an encore, chanting: “Ko-ko! Ko-ko! So this name stuck with her (although later she admitted that she didn’t really like it).
Among the officer admirers of Coco was a man named Etienne Balzan. He became her first wealthy patron. And the second - was his friend, the English industrialist Arthur Kapel, nicknamed Boy. It was absolute love. Love to the grave, as it turned out (he would die in a car accident in 1919 and leave her - already, however, who did not need it at all - 40,000 francs).
The fight helped Coco open the first store in Paris, on Rue Cambon (very soon the name of this street became strongly associated with the name of Chanel). In a couple of years, Koko will return to Boy all the money he invested in her business. Somewhat annoyed by this gesture, he will tell her: “I thought that I gave you a toy, but it turned out that I gave you freedom ...”
How did she manage to achieve success so quickly? And she just had no other choice. To resolutely rebel against everything that was in the fashion of that era, she was forced by nothing more than her own body. Thin and did not fit into the generally accepted canons of that time. Anything expensive and magnificent simply did not physically fit this body, and therefore she despised chic fabrics and was drawn to cheap knitwear. And it was again "games with death." After all, appearing at some social event in knitwear was tantamount to coming there without clothes at all.
The same games with non-existence flickered in the practice of transferring grooms' everyday elements to the world of high fashion - knitted fabric, pullovers, breeches. And all this in the name of a new femininity ... Her main credo is that clothes should be inconspicuous: “If some woman struck you with her beauty, but you can’t remember what she was wearing, then she was dressed perfectly.”
In 1919, Coco Chanel was already famous all over the world. Clients were in full swing, all wanting to wear her flannel blazers, loose-fitting skirts, long jersey sweaters, sailor suits, and a skirt-jacket suit. Harpers Bazaar magazine wrote: "A woman who does not have at least one thing from Chanel in her wardrobe is hopelessly behind fashion." Koko herself - cut her hair short, wore small hats and dark glasses.
After Boy's death, she shut herself up in her Villa Milanese, ordered the walls and ceilings of the bedroom to be painted black. Curtains, sheets, bedspreads should have become black ... “This death was the hardest blow for me. With the death of Capel, I lost everything, ”she admitted. And in another interview of that time she said: “A woman cannot be happy if she is unloved. Because that's all she needs. A woman who is not loved is zero and nothing more. Believe me: she is young or old, mother, mistress ... A woman who is not loved - dead woman. She can die in peace, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
The Russians helped her out of her depression. She met Diaghilev and Stravinsky, began to provide them with financial support (for example, she gave Diaghilev 300 thousand francs for the production of The Rite of Spring, and after 10 years spent sleepless nights at his bedside when he was dying in Venice, and then gave money to him funeral).
Soon, communication with the Russian diaspora brought Koko to Grand Duke Dmitry, grandson of Alexander II and cousin of Nicholas II. A man who miraculously escaped death twice (the first time, when he fled Russia in 1917, fearing retribution from the Empress for participating in the murder of Rasputin; the second time, because he was not in Russia during the Great October revolution). Coco Chanel fell in love and took the young prince to support ...
It was Dmitry who introduced her to perfumer Ernest Bo, whose father had once worked for imperial family. Bo toyed with the idea of creating the first artificial fragrance, and this idea really liked Coco, who believed that all these natural floral scents were a complete pretense and fake. Perfume for a woman should smell like a woman, she said, and decided on another experiment: not a single Fashion House had its own fragrance yet ...
In the photographs of those years, Coco Chanel looks like the singer Zemfira: self-sufficient and self-confident, a little rude and, of course, stylish.
When she was 50, she had another lover who almost became her husband. Spanish artist Paul Irib. In 1935, Paul Irib fell badly on a tennis court and died immediately.
Koko continued her games with death ... And during the war, a new round began. She leaves the fashion world and closes her shops.
France is occupied by the Nazis. And Coco Chanel has an affair with a German diplomat. The diplomat introduces her to one of the leaders of the Third Reich, Walter Schellenberg. Chanel begins to work for the Nazis (they say that a love affair with Schellenberg himself played a role here). The Nazis are trying to use her as an intermediary in peace negotiations with Churchill, with whom she was friends. After the liberation of France, she has to leave the country so as not to pay for her ties with the Germans.
... In 1954, at the age of 70, Coco Chanel will return. Showing her new collection will be accepted with obvious disapproval: according to critics, she did not show anything new ... All the same strict simple costumes. But it was not a self-repetition, it was an eternity. Timeless elegance. And it didn't take the French too long to figure it out. Coco has become a national treasure of France. And then the whole world. When TIME magazine listed her in the top 100 influential people XX century, Coco Chanel was the only representative of the fashion world in this list.
Gabrielle Coco Chanel died on January 10, 1971 at the age of 88 in the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which stands just opposite her first - and by that time already cult and world-famous - boutique. On the rue Cambon. “This is how they leave us to die,” were her last words.
The article was published in
Many people knock on wood, try not to walk under stairs, or carry some kind of "good luck" charm (like a rabbit's foot). Such rituals are, of course, the fruit of superstition: the comforting belief that a ritual or object has the power to bring good luck or ward off evil.
« It's peculiar human nature: the desire to control what is perhaps not in our power. To one degree or another, it affects almost everyone.”, says Ellen Weinstein, an illustrator, writer and art critic from New York.
Being deep superstitious person, she has always been interested in the rituals that people resort to in the hope of ensuring their success, productivity or creativity. But Ellen does not disclose her personal practices. " If I tell about them, they will lose their power. Weinstein laughs. But he willingly shares the superstitions of remarkable personalities.
In April 2018, Ellen released the book " Recipes for good luck: superstitions, rituals and practices extraordinary people ". The text and its playful illustrations reveal superstitious habits 65 famous artists, designers, musicians, scientists, athletes, writers.
Illustration for Mary Shelley's ritual.
Their routines range from unexpected to highly eccentric. For example, the writer Mary Shelley worked with a boa constrictor around her neck and interpreted the snake's movements as instructions to keep writing or wrap up. And Frida Kahlo worked better after taking care of the garden.
The rituals are extremely diverse, but the people who practice them are united by a deep passion for their occupation and a desire to succeed in their work, Weinstein said.
Below are excerpts with illustrations from Ellen's book, in which she spoke about bizarre rituals "for good luck" creative people From Yoko Ono to Salvador Dali.
Coco Chanel and lucky number 5
Illustration for the superstition of Coco Chanel.
French fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971) was a deeply superstitious person. A fortune teller once told her that 5 was her lucky number. Therefore, Coco called her famous fragrance "Chanel No. 5". Also in her apartment hung a crystal chandelier twisted into the number 5, and she preferred to present her collections on the fifth day of May (the fifth month of the year).
Pablo Picasso held on to his "essence"
Illustration for the superstitions of Pablo Picasso.
The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) did not throw away his old clothes, cut hair and nails for fear of losing part of their "essence". He collected own works, and at the time of his death the artist owned about fifty thousand own works: from engravings and drawings to ceramics and theatrical scenery. Picasso is one of the most prolific and influential painters of the last century.
Charles Dickens and Dreaming North
An illustration of the superstitions of Charles Dickens.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) carried a compass with him to determine the cardinal directions, and always look north when dreaming. In his opinion, this practice improved his writing and helped in creativity. Dickens, who created Big hopes” and “Christmas stories”, there was also social critic. He was guided by a strong moral compass, which was evident in his sharp images socio-economic realities.
Yoko Ono and lighting a match
An illustration of the superstitions of Yoko Ono.
The famous avant-garde artist, singer and artist Yoko Ono was very sensitive to sound and light in her youth. She found that lighting a match and watching the flame go out in a dark room made her feel better. It repeated this ritual constantly until it calmed down. Later this personal habit became part of a performance called Lighting Piece.
Diane von Furstenberg and a lucky gold coin
Illustration for the ritual of Diana von Furstenberg.
Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg always kept a gold twenty-franc coin, which her father hid in his boot during World War II and gave to his daughter as a child. Before every fashion show, she put a coin in her shoes. Good luck. Von Furstenberg is the creator of the legendary wrap dress, known for her projects in more than fifty-five countries around the world.
Frida Kahlo and gardening
Illustration for Frida Kahlo.
Paintings Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) for the most part autobiographical and filled with plants and flowers she grew in the garden of the house she shared with the artist Diego Rivera. The well-kept garden of Kahlo was a place of comfort and inspiration for her, where she spent hours caring for plants, fruit trees and flowers. Frida's desk was by a window overlooking the garden. And even when she returned home from the hospital before her death, she asked to move the bed to the window so that she could see the garden.
Dr. Seuss and hats from creative block
Illustration for the ritual of Dr. Seuss.
The writer and cartoonist Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), better known as Dr. Seuss, collected huge collection from almost 300 hats. When faced with writer's block, he would go to his secret closet, select a hat, and wear it until inspiration returned. This quirk helped him create The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch Stole Christmas, and more. most popular books, with which Dr. Seuss became the best-selling author on English language for small children.
Salvador Dali and the Spanish driftwood
Illustration for Salvador Dali's ritual.
The artist, graphic artist and sculptor Salvador Dali (1904-1989) considered himself superstitious and carried with him a small piece of Spanish driftwood, which was supposed to ward off evil spirits. He was one of the most well-known representatives surrealism. Known for his eccentricity, Dali once almost choked to death while giving a lecture in a diving suit and helmet.
Agatha Christie and apples in the bathroom
Illustration for the ritual of Agatha Christie.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is one of the most famous authors detective prose. famous English writer, the creator of Murder on the Orient Express, nibbled on apples in the bathroom while concocting murder mysteries. This practice certainly brought her success. During her career, Christie wrote more than sixty detective novels, 19 collections of short stories and a number of plays, including The Mousetrap, which is still shown on the stage. Agatha Christie's novels have sold billions of copies around the world.
4 chose
He was born exactly 112 years ago and claimed to remember himself literally from the moment of conception. All his life he was convinced that his mission on this Earth was to save art. He had his own - a special idea of \u200b\u200blove, and he was lucky to meet women on his way who understood and accepted his worldview ...
They... There were three of them in his life - three Muses who made his life even more filled and amazing. And who managed to find out what he really is - the author of "The Face of War", "Giraffes on Fire", "Galatea with Spheres", "The Persistence of Memory" and many other works of painting and literature...
He...
Salvador Domenech Felip Jacinte Dali and Domenech was born on May 11, 1904 in the Catalan town of Figueres exactly 9 months after his older brother tragically passed away while still at a completely tender age. And the name of which was also - Salvador.
For the Dali couple - a wealthy notary and his wife - the death of their first child was a great grief. And in order to somehow soothe the emotional wounds, the family went to a picturesque place, returning from where Philip realized that she was pregnant again.
The appearance of a son was perceived as a miracle, and the boy received the same name - Salvador, which means "savior" in Spanish. They were worried about the boy's health and therefore indulged in almost everything. In addition, Philip often took her son to the grave of his older brother.
Apparently already then young genius I concluded for myself that he is the reincarnation of his older brother ... Only in his improved form. And he spent his entire childhood in the status of an "outstanding" child. And if you look from the side, then he pretty much spoiled the blood of his parents, arranging completely ugly tantrums and scandals, accompanied by all sorts of pranks and antics. Younger sister Ana Maria later recalled more than once how Salvador shed tears, threw himself on the floor and fought in hysterics, switching to ultrasound, and all this for the sake of sometimes completely insane desires - for example, for the sake of a flag from the flagpole at the Town Hall or a candy from a closed confectionery.
At the same time, the boy showed a huge number of phobias and complexes. It seemed that he would never be able to make friends, but the thirst for attention overcame all fears. Moreover, I found a "compromise" in my work...
What inspired him? All. Nature, dreams, losing at cards, people, friends, Women ... With the fair sex, the genius had very complicated relationship. But in them he found his main Muses...
Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova was born on August 26 in Kazan, then still in the Russian Empire. After being widowed, her mother remarried a lawyer with whom she would later move to permanent place residence in Moscow.
Here she studies in the same gymnasium with her sisters and Anastasia, but at the age of 16, her stepfather sent her to Switzerland - for the treatment of tuberculosis in a sanatorium.
Here - in the town of Clavadel - she met with the son of a famous real estate dealer, Paul Eluard. The result of this holiday romance was the conclusion of a legal marriage between young people in 1917. It was thanks to Paul that Elena turned into a Muse named Gal A and bore him a daughter, Cecile.
Rotating in bohemian circles, the couple has been in the spotlight more than once, thanks to their antics and lifestyle. Gala was a real Muse, inspiring not only her husband to create amazing romantic poems, but also his painter friends, among whom once was Dali...
It was a bolt from the blue. And for both. Gala became the second woman to appear on his canvases (the first was Dali's sister, Ana Maria), while gaining his fame evil genius. Although it was thanks to her efforts that Dali was among the millionaire artists and remained so until the end of his days. Probably, now there is no area where the brand would not light up Salvador Dali - advertising, theater (together with them they created costumes for the ballet "Bacchanalia", for which Dali also wrote the libretto), perfumery, cinema, animation, literature ...
Amanda Lear
An amazing person, TV presenter, singer, cult personality of her time. She is a real high-quality product of PR, to which they had a hand the brightest personalities: and He is Salvador Dali himself.
Incredible low voice, which could easily be confused with a man, which, in fact, was the reason for the rumors that Amanda was a transsexual. Both of them - Both Dali and Amanda - loved provocative antics, so they played along in every possible way with the "yellow press", explaining that the singer's pseudonym was a play on the words of the French phrase "Dali's Mistress" (L "Amant Dali"), and Dali's favorite joke was: " Which luxury woman!... But she is a man!"
And yet ... Amanda Tapp was born on November 18, 1946 in Hong Kong. It mixed a cocktail of French and Chinese blood. In the mid-1960s, at one of the receptions, fate brought her together with Salvador Dali, who appreciated her unusualness and made her his Muse. She posed for him and participated in all his pranks (and Gala, meanwhile - perhaps for the first time in her life - perceived Amanda as a serious rival). Dali taught her painting and came up with more and more pranks.
Nanita Kalashnikoff
Maria Fernanda was born in Puerto del Sol near the Royal Academy of San Fernando (Madroda, Spain). The father wanted to name his daughter Ambarina because of the color of her hair and snow-white skin. But the church has made it clear that this is impossible. Nanita (a diminutive of Fernand) was the daughter of the famous erotic novelist of the early twentieth century, José Maria Carretero, who published under the pseudonym El Caballero Audas. These books young Dali read in adolescence, and the fact that at the Knickerbrokers charity ball in New York, the blonde in a luxurious red dress, who conquered him with her very appearance, is the daughter of his favorite writer, shocked the artist to the core.
By the time of the significant meeting, Nanita was already "deeply married" to the jeweler Mikhail Kalashnikov and the mother of three daughters. Dali seemed to her a funny eccentric, but their further meetings showed that they had a lot in common.
And again, Gala suspected that Dali was ready to leave her. But... Ninita and Salvador just enjoyed spending time, because they understood each other perfectly. They sang their favorite arias, walked, chatted about everything in the world. Nanita posed for Dali, and her husband perceived their friendship as a cute prank.
Nanita became a real outlet for Dali, a real friend who remained with him until the very end and whom he simply called "King" ...
Leokadiya Korshunova , website
Photo: art-dali.com, maxpark.com, pinterest.com, elcultural.com
Coco Chanel (fr. Coco Chanel).
Coco Chanel - her real name is Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (fr. Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel).
Chanel was born on August 19, 1883. It seems needless to say that Chanel was a French fashion designer whose inspiration and modernism made her one of the most famous in the history of fashion in the 20th century - everyone knows this.
And it all started in small town Saumur, where Chanel's parents ended up - Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devol. Koko's father was a traveling merchant and did not sit in one place. For a while, his parents were not legally married - he needed a girlfriend, but not a wife. Jeanne was not of such an opinion, she loved Albert, and her love was so strong that, most likely, it was no longer just love, but a disease. She could not part with Albert, no matter what it cost her. Jeanne had to earn money to support all the arriving family members with hard work: work in the kitchen, piles of linen. She had to struggle to get a place in the kitchen, a place as an ironer or a maid. Her health was fading, but she was ready to bear everything, just to be near her husband. Jeanne died when Gabrielle was only six years old. And then her father left her with her brothers and sisters. From that moment on, Gabrielle was in the care of relatives, then at the orphanage to which she was sent when she was 12 years old. At 18, Coco with help charitable organization ended up in a boarding school for children from noble families. And then she got a job as a seller in a fabric store in the city of Moulin. She dreamed of becoming a singer and in her free time in the Rotunda cafe she sang the songs "The one who saw Coco" and "Ko-Ko-Ri-Ko". That's when they called her Coco.
Chanel soon met a wealthy heir, Etienne Balzan. He had an estate near Paris where he bred horses. She agreed to his proposal to become a mistress - she had long wanted to move to Paris and, moreover, Gabrielle knew that you had to pay for everything in life. It was here that she became an excellent rider and began to make her delightful hats, which conquered everyone with their novelty and charm. And it was here that she realized how women bow to men, trying to please, and lose the battle.
For herself, Koko decided that from any battle, she would emerge victorious. As a child, she lacked love, she was surrounded by indifference - all this left its mark. And Gabrielle learned to fight and win, and most importantly, she learned to sew. And whatever she did - a hat or clothes that sat on her so well that one could not think about it - everything attracted the attention of others. And then Chanel realized that she had something that should be used, that is, the gift of creative thought, and most importantly, the ability to survive.
Balzan was succeeded by Arthur Capel, a wealthy heir to the coal mines, an excellent businessman who died in 1919 in car accident. He helped her become business woman. In 1910, she opened her first shop in Paris, selling women's hats, a year later her fashion house was opened on Rue Cambon, where it is now.
Simplicity and luxury were in the creations of Chanel. She managed to remove the corset from the minds of women, took advantage of masculine elegance to create in the wardrobe of women such free and necessary things as shirts for men, ties, riding trousers, jackets that were austere and at the same time charm, superiority and obedience. In 1918, Chanel expanded her business. She delighted with a black lace and beaded tulle evening dress, a beige jersey coat-dress ensemble. All this seemed simple, but at the same time luxurious - a real miracle of tailoring.
“Fashion is something that exists not only in clothes. Fashion is in the air. It is connected with our thoughts and our way of life, with what is happening around us.”
Her best creations: a little black dress, which, in 1926, American Vogue magazine equated with the popularity of the Ford car and called it the "Ford" of fashion, cascades of pearls on a plain twine, two-tone pumps, pumps, a fitted jacket, a white camellia silks, which have become symbols of her brand. Her jewelry had a stunning effect, combining the luxury of emeralds or pearls with excellent costume jewelry of her own. Combination precious stones with artificial ones was a bold find, which she used as luxurious jewelry.
Her brooches, made of colored glass and over the shoulder, made a stunning effect, they were subsequently made by various fashion companies around the world. They are still considered classics, and women of fashion are ready to give decent amounts for them.
Her little black dress could be worn day and night, adding a string of pearls or other accessories.
The ideas that she created at the beginning of the 20th century have remained eternal because elegance is not influenced by time. The motto of the appearance of her models was simplicity and mobility. Chanel made many of her discoveries by peeping this or that image or some element, among folk clothes. For example, the Russian style with embroidery and fur trim, geometric patterns, rubberized raincoats, the model of which she saw when she saw her in her chauffeur's clothes. She was the first to use knitwear in women's wardrobe.
Chanel was on friendly terms with many people of art: Picasso, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and did not stay away from the avant-garde trend. But she never changed her principles. For her, a hat in the shape of a telephone or a skirt in which you could not walk, but only mince, were unacceptable. Therefore, what was later called the "look of Chanel" meant an uncompromising look at fashion, where there is a measure and convenience in everything and no extremes. “We must always clean up, remove everything superfluous. There is no need to add anything ... There is no other beauty but the freedom of the body ... ". Becoming a fashion designer, she experienced satisfaction and believed that she won when her ideas were picked up by the street, and her models were on the common people. Her principles were to create simple, strict models with clear lines, models that emphasize strengths and hide weaknesses.
Chanel provided material support to many artists. For example, she financed some productions of the Russian Ballet, supported the composer Igor Stravinsky for many years, and helped pay for the treatment of Jean Cocteau.
In the dexterity with which she was able to give chic to any product, one felt not only taste, but above all the ability to “make something out of nothing”.
Her clients learned to please, going against the existing fashion. Gabrielle had no shortage of ideas, and she knew how to sell, just like her father and grandfather did in her time. Gabrielle inherited family qualities - she was hardy at work. Work and succeed... Chanel did not draw her models, she created them with scissors and pins, right on the fashion models. A few hand movements were enough for her to create luxury from formless matter. Sometimes ideas came to her in a dream, she woke up and started working.
She worked 12-14 hours a day and demanded the same from her colleagues. Not everyone was given to endure such work. Chanel possessed a combination of aristocracy and, at the same time, tough business acumen. When she set a goal for herself, she always achieved it. According to rough estimates, in the 20-30s of her model business gave $200-300 thousand a year.
Chanel was a great artist. She wanted to create not only new silhouettes, but also to bring new sensations to life. Many years later it would be called "lifestyle".
Coco Chanel was one of the representatives of haute couture, Time magazine included in the list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.
She marked her fortieth birthday with the release of a completely new perfume, in which there is no smell of one flower. She was assisted in this Grand Duke Dmitry and Russian emigre perfumer Ernest Bo.
The Second World War. In 1940, she had to turn to a German diplomat to rescue her nephew, who was captured. She had known the diplomat for a long time. And when he helped her, her affection for him increased even more. At the end of the war, circumstances develop in such a way that Chanel has to leave France for almost eight long years. She was accused not only of love affair with the German baron, but also in contact with the head of the department foreign intelligence Germany Schellenberg, assistant to the commander of the "SS" Heinrich Himmler.
She was threatened with arrest. Winston Churchill himself stood up for Chanel, who once wrote about her in his diary: “The famous Coco arrived, and I admired her. This is one of the most intelligent and charming, the most Strong woman that I have ever dealt with."
Chanel closed all her boutiques and left for Switzerland.
From there, she followed the changes taking place in the fashion world. New couturiers appeared, such as Hubert de Givenchy and others. Chanel was 71 years old when she returned to Paris again and offered her collection. But the show of her models took place in complete silence public. Chanel wanted to prove to everyone that fashion changes and style remains, but the press said that she did not offer anything new. But not everyone can understand that elegance is eternal. Chanel improved her models, and a year later almost all fashionistas considered it an honor to dress at Chanel. The famous Chanel suit has become immortal, you feel comfortable and free in it, and this is also thanks to the right fabric - light tweed. The suit guarantees reliability in all situations.
Chanel handbags, shoes and jewelry have become classics. In the 60s, she collaborated with Hollywood studios. Chanel fashion will not become obsolete, because it contains the philosophical concept of Chanel: "To look great, you do not have to be young and beautiful."
Chanel left our world on Sunday, January 10, 1971, at the age of 88, in a room at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Time Magazine estimated her annual income at $160 million.
However, she never extolled wealth and did not praise money. Chanel found among prominent artists those friends she was proud of. Although her life was completely subordinated to work - the creation of clothes, the most important thing for her was love. What is striking about her is not only the success that she has achieved, not only her popularity, but also the fact that she managed to remain mysterious. Incredible Chanel...
Like Chanel, her sign is immortal: two intersecting letters C - Coco Chanel and a white camellia on a black satin bow.
since 1983 he has been the head of the Chanel fashion house and Karl Lagerfeld is its chief designer.
Coco Chanel biography
She invented the zipper, turned the usual fashion show into bright show suggested to wear evening dresses with costume jewelry, opened the world's first boutique, created the first collection of knitted sweaters for women and gave the ladies a two-piece swimsuit. “Elsa knows how to go too far,” contemporaries said about Elsa Schiaparelli, and Salvador Dali simply idolized her. They didn't have love story. They had something more. This crazy couple turned their dreams, nightmares, desires and feelings into colors, shapes and fabrics that took the world by storm.
The work of Elsa Schiaparelli not only made her a model of fashion and style, but also led to her appearance worst enemy- Coco Chanel. There is still a rumor that Koko once at a party in a cafe deliberately pushed a candle from the table onto Elsa in order to set fire to her dress. After that, Schiaparelli, a fashion designer from Italy and a native of an aristocratic family, declared an unspoken war on the creator of the Chanel Nº5 fragrance.
She soon became the celebrity everyone wanted to meet, the fashion designer and designer everyone wanted to collaborate with. And someone completely fell in love with Elsa's madness, and it was famous El Salvador Dali.
The story of the enmity between Elsa and Coco, trendsetters in women's fashion in the 20s and 30s, has become one of the most interesting conflicts in history. In this war of talent, people have not only learned what women are ready for because of hatred. However, they were similar. These women have experienced many heartbreaks, but have not given up in the name of their passion for fashion.
Their different styles (one preferred pink and surrealism, and the other black and classic) also led to the fact that various artists and designers were drawn to them like moths to a fire. Dali was no exception, who simply could not pass by the "shocking Pink colour”, used by Schiaparelli in almost all of his projects, and even more so could not ignore her symbolic madness.
Salvador Dali, the man who made surrealism a utopia, literally fell in love with Schiaparelli's imagination and became obsessed with her ambitions. Before that, the life of a designer was not particularly successful. The aristocratic family shunned Elsa because of her whimsical appearance and the loneliness that has always accompanied her. Elsa married early in search of someone close, but she soon felt she had made the worst mistake of her life.
The marriage broke up, and the girl remained in Paris with her little daughter in her arms and without a penny in her pocket. Given all these misfortunes, Dali and Elsa (when they began to cooperate) felt something in common: first, they were against the whole world. Also, both imagined, created and materialized works of art that no one before them could even think of. This couple of crazy people turned their dreams, nightmares, desires and feelings into colors, shapes and textures that took the world by storm.
Although Schiaparelli and Dali have never had anything more than friendship, the Catalan artist considered the fashion designer one of his sources of inspiration. Gala, Salvador's lover and muse, wore a hat shaped like a shoe that Elsa created because a surrealist once told her that he preferred to sleep with a shoe on his head. Dali inspired Schiaparelli to create the Shocking perfume, or to be more precise, he advised her to make a bottle in the shape of a mannequin. Elsa, in turn, inspired the surrealist genius to create the painting Woman with a Head of Roses (1935).
It was Elsa who told the artist about this vision of a woman with a flowering head, who once dreamed that a bouquet of flowers began to grow from her ears and nostrils, and her mother stopped “considering her ugly”. Eccentric stories were the basis of the friendship between Dali and Schiaparelli. Together they became the center of attention artistic world, and high society looking for new entertainment to admire.
While fashion shows, inspired by entomophobic (insect phobia) surrealism, and paintings based on the life of an innovative artist, survived almost entirely from the fashion world of such personalities as "The Hat" (Coco Chanel gave this nickname to Elsa).
A dress inspired by Salvador Dali's lobster painting, in which the fashion designer depicted a still life of lobster and parsley, was the pinnacle of the couple's success. When the Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson, who was a respected client of Chanel, ordered such an outfit for herself, envy and competition between the two designers escalated to the limit.
Interestingly, around the time the defiant, witty and erotic character Dali's paintings have been criticized. However, it was the success of The Woman with a Head of Roses, written from Elsa's words, that restored the artist's reputation. At this time, Time magazine published a photo of Schiaparelli as the best designer on the cover.
However, war and hard times for Europeans led to the fact that Schiaparelli's outrageous fashion became irrelevant, and this allowed Coco Chanel to climb the “throne” again, with her love of black, elegance and rigor, which were very different from Schiaparelli's surrealism and riot of colors. This did not happen with Dali's surrealism, and to this day he is a person whom everyone recognizes and remembers.
Unfortunately, many of Elsa's designs, inspired by Salvador's paintings, were forgotten. The fashion world began to be dominated by Coco Chanel, with her "little black dress" and exclusive Chanel Nº5 perfume. Spirit sculptures and perfume mannequins created by Schiaparelli were forgotten, and creative process and bold experiments gave way to the classics.
The woman who inspired Dali with her madness and ambition was in fact neither his mistress nor a surrealist artist. She was a fashion designer who decided that pink sequined clothes and insect-inspired jewelry were the ultimate expression of style.
