Coco Chanel: 129 years of myth and fashion

"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous!"

Coco Chanel

Today, in occasion of the anniversary, I want to give a tribute to a fashion icon, capable with her work to revolutionize the concept of fashion of her time, turning it into something absolutely unique and timeless: Coco Chanel.

Carmel Snow and Coco Chanel

<<Grown up into an orphanage, with a course of study on her own and the foundation of her fashion house in 1913, Chanel is the most important designer of the twentieth century. The pioneering use of sportwaer for 20's Haute Couture, the short black tailleurs, the preference for tanned skin and the appropriation of male shapes, are the elements that create her legend. The parfum Chanel n°5, produced in 1921, is still among classics with her tweed dresses with soft cut and 50's leather shoulder bags.>>

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel

<<The timelessness of Chanel style has been analyzed by many scholars. Unlike Elsa Schiapparelli, her contemporary, inspired by Surrealism and Poiret's style, Coco was disconnected by the trends of her time. The classic Chanel is preserved over the years thanks to defined shapes and opaque fabrics that, with their colors, are capable to capture the light. The french semiotician Jean-Marie Floch spotted the Chanel's strangeness of time in the ability of the designer to combine female fashion with elements of male fashion, creating a great opposite mix, totally new, like a femininity accentuated by paradox.>> 

Chanel boutique, 31 Rue Cambon

At her death, in 1971, Chanel leaves a considerable inheritance of directives that, today, are masterfully reintepreted by Karl Lagerfeld, creative director of the Maison from 1983.

Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel in "Coco avant Chanel"

A character like few in the fashion history, whose life has been played in movies by actresses like Audrey Toutou, Shirley MacLane and Barbara Bobulova and whose legacy is, today, a true legend. 

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Bon anniversaire Coco!