CREATE ~ WRITE: Biography Coco Chanel

CREATE ~ WRITE

WRITE A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF A FRENCH PERSON

          COCO CHANEL

COCO CHANEL was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, she was a world famous fashion designer who was called one of the top 100 influential people in the 20^th century by Time Magazine.

She came from nothing and built an empire which changed the way people looked at fashion.

She didn’t want women to dress for men, but wanted women to dress for themselves by feeling free and not being tied up in a corset.

Coco Chanel in 1920s

Coco Chanel didn’t just design hats and clothes but was the first fashion designer to have her own perfume range.  Chanel No 5 is still a very popular perfume and every woman in the western world today probably has a LBD  (a Little Black Dress) which Coco Chanel created 80 years ago.

EARLY LIFE

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in a small village in France in 1883. Her mother died when she was 12 and her father abandoned her and her two sisters. She lived in an orphanage run by nuns until she was 18 years old. She learned to sew there. She then went to a boarding house to work for a seamstress. She also sang in café concerts and she thought she had a career performing but her singing wasn’t good enough. This was when she changed her name to Coco!

THE BEGINNING OF COCO CHANEL – FASHION DESIGNER

Coco met a rich man called Etienne Balsan who she lived with in his mansion. She started making hats there because she believed that she had ideas and was determined to use her creativity. She left Etienne because he was restricting her. She fell in love with his best friend, Boy, and he loved her and encouraged her to be independent and start her own shop. He helped her open her shop in 1910 in Rue Cambon in Paris where she sold hats.

WW1 came and she designed clothes with cheaper fabric. She saw men wearing jersey jumpers and thought, why can’t women wear that? So she started a range of jersey clothing which became very popular.

In 1920 she created Chanel No 5 perfume, and she designed the little black dress. The LBD was meant to be long lasting, affordable and could be worn for many occasions. The LBD changed with the times but the simplicity and statement .

LATER LIFE

Coco Chanel created a fashion empire  which was known around the world. During WW2 and then the Depression she didn’t create a lot, but started again in the 1950s and changed fashion again, especially as there were many men designers she kept focusing on women wearing

                                clothes for women. There are also Chanel bags, accessories and jewellery.

She died lonely at  87 years old but left a legacy and put French fashion designers on the map.