Coco Chanel
We owe these seven creations to the style icon
With her little black dress, the many pearl necklaces and bob cut, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel changed the fashion world.
© imago images / Mary Evans
Coco Chanel died 50 years ago, on January 10, 1971. The world of women owes a lot to the fashion pioneer. Your most important creations.
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, fashion pioneer and style icon, was a legend even during her lifetime. The creator of the Parisian fashion empire Chanel died 50 years ago, on January 10, 1971, at the age of 87. With these creations, she shaped the fashion world forever.
From the sailing ship to Chanel's studio: the Breton shirt
The striped sailor shirt, or Breton shirt, is still a trademark of French "savoir-vivre" elegance. Originally worn by Breton sailors on the high seas, Coco Chanel introduced the striped top, which the French call "la marinière", into popular fashion in 1913 after a holiday in Brittany.
Chanel Nº 5: The most successful women's fragrance of all time
100 years after its invention, "Chanel Nº 5" is still in the top ten best-selling women's fragrances. After Coco Chanel had resisted selling perfume for a few years, her new lover, Grand Duke Dmitri (1891-1942) introduced it to the perfumer Ernest Beaux in 1921. Chanel showed a selection of numbered fragrance samples – she decided on the fifth.
At first, she gave away individual fragrance samples only to her customers, who soon asked for more. In 1922, "Chanel Nº 5" was officially offered for sale and became the epitome of elegance. At the latest with Marilyn Monroe's sentence "I only wear a few drops of Chanel Nº 5 to sleep" the success of the perfume could no longer be stopped.
She brought the pants to the woman
After the First World War, Coco Chanel pioneered women's trousers. Previously, trousers were only reserved for men; factory workers at least wore overalls in winter. In order to be able to get into the rocking gondolas during her vacation in Venice, the fashion designer designed a pair of trousers for herself in the 1920s. The so-called "Yachting Pants" were born: wide-cut trousers for leisure activities that combined functionality with elegance. Once again, Coco Chanel took inspiration from sailors' men's fashion.
From her boyfriend's clothes to the legendary tweed costume
Inspiration was also provided by her partner Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, with whom she was in a relationship between 1924 and 1930. Apparently, Chanel kept lending his clothes because she found them more comfortable than women's fashion. In 1925 she introduced her first tweed suit.
Tweed had previously been used as a material for sportswear, but with Coco Chanel's legendary tweed suit, the "Chanel uniform", consisting of a narrow skirt and collarless jacket, it became a glamorous, feminine textile that will never go out of style came. To this day, the part is not missing on any Chanel catwalk.
The little black one
Until the early 20th century, black clothing was mostly reserved for grieving widows. It was Coco Chanel who brought the "little black dress" to life in 1926 with the sketch of a black shift dress. The American "Vogue" called the design "a kind of uniform for all women with taste". The simple design soon shaped the fashion of the 20s and stood for a new, modern type of woman. Even today, the "little black dress" should not be missing in any wardrobe.
She made shoulder bags socially acceptable for women
Coco Chanel often took inspiration from men's fashion. In February 1955, the legendary "2.55" bag, today the epitome of the luxury item, was considered a sensation that Chanel's female customers were initially skeptical about. The design of the bag was based on the shoulder strap pockets that were mainly carried by men. Until then, women usually had a clutch in their hands. But Chanel's idea prevailed – around 30 new "2.55" models in different colors, sizes and materials are still appearing every year.
Coco Chanel's penchant for boyish fashion inspired Karl Lagerfeld, who followed in the French's footsteps at Chanel in 1982, to invent another bag classic: the Chanel Boy Bag. It is named after Coco Chanel's great love, the Brit Arthur "Boy" Capel, who gave her a loan to open her first hat atelier in Paris in 1910.
She created the two-tone shoe
"Cinderella's new shoe" was the name of Coco Chanel's latest creation in 1957: the two-tone shoe. The beige strappy pumps with black lace and five centimeter high heels should be the perfect companion for the fashionable woman. "I can travel the world with four pairs of shoes," said Coco Chanel of her creation. Even today, the shoe is one of the trademarks of the legendary style icon and it is impossible to imagine her fashion empire without it.