Gabriel Chanel: biography, personal life, photo

By 1913, thirty-year-old Gabriel Chanel has two salons in France. Borrowing money from Arthur Keipel, with great excitement, she opens a store in the French resort of Biarritz, on the very border with Spain. With this milestone, the Chanel brand begins the conquest of Europe.

And already in 1915 a fashionable European magazine wrote: "A woman who does not have at least one dress from Chanel in her wardrobe can be considered hopelessly behind the fashion."

After a lapse of a century, the things desired by fashion designers from Chanel can be listed endlessly: from classic coats to elegant brooches. Today, Chanel House is 150 boutiques around the world and hundreds of thousands of brand names.

According to some reports, the annual turnover of the company is more than one billion dollars. And the logo of the brand is one of the most recognizable and quoted in the world of fashion, like the name of its founder - the great Coco Chanel.

Who is she? How did this woman's life come about? Where does Gabriel Chanel come from? You will learn all this after reading the article.

"Coco"

"My father did not like the name Gabriel. He was afraid that they would call me Gaby. So he came up with the affectionate nickname Coco, which meant the chicken. "

This beautiful story Gabrielle came up with to drown out the pain of a lonely childhood, in which there was no father's love. Nicknamed Gabrielle Chanel received much later from the visitors to the cabaret "Rotonda", where she performed after the shifts in the store. In several songs that she sang, this word constantly sounded.

Gabriel Chanel: biography, childhood

She was born on the nineteenth of August 1883 in a shelter for the poor French town of Saumur. Gabrielle's name was given to her by a nurse-attendant at the hospice hospital. Neither the mother - the daughter of an ordinary worker, nor her father - a vagabond merchant, could not think of a name for the newborn. The girl became the second of five children in this family.

When she was 12, her mother, exhausted by asthma, died. A father who had a passion for road and drink, and the trace was cold. Two sons, as abandoned, the authorities identified in someone else's family, who received benefits from them, and the brothers plowed like curses. Three sisters took root for a short while with their uncles and aunts, but soon found themselves in the monastic orphanage.

Later Chanel talked about those events, as about unbearable blows for the child's soul, then she had to deeply feel what it's like to lose everything. This pain gave rise to a desperate inferiority in the girl, who pushed her to desperately brave deeds until the very gray.

Uncompromising, arrogant, insolent. Hatred of the idle lifestyle of bohemians and a burning desire to earn on their own to achieve all the benefits of this life. That's all that got in her difficult childhood Koko. And it was useful to her in order to prove to him, who threw her indifferent person with an untalented fate, that she is and she is worthy of love. With the father, by the way, they no longer met.

Singer

Two years after the native monastery, Coco spent in another boarding house, after which she was assigned to work in a bridal shop in the town of Moulin.

Quickly gaining confidence from the customers of the store, she took small orders for the house. But the dream about the career of the actress led to the stage of the cafe "Rotonda", where she sang popular songs and earned herself the first glory and attention of men.

The rumor about the young singer quickly spread through a small soldier's city. And the brisk orphan was thrown out of her decent position in the store with a bang.

Paris

The meeting with Etienne Baisan opened the door to another world. A military man, an aristocrat by birth, he had a huge inheritance and a glorious character. Their relationship began in the same "Rotunda".

Having moved to his country house, the young provincial woman gained access to social life, but she did not become the legitimate companion of Etienne.

When Gabriel Chanel, a photo in her youth, presented to your attention in the article, conceived to open a studio, Baisan refused her credit, but provided his Paris apartment for these purposes.

Despite the warm relations, Etienne never admitted to love and did not want to marry. His feelings were kindled when the mistress left for another. The other was his closest friend.

The battle

Arthur Capele, known in the circle of friends as "Fight," was an orphan, but managed to create a fortune and was accepted in high society. With him, Koko realized that it is not necessary to be born rich - you can become her. Thanks to Boy, she began her career as an entrepreneur.

He gave money to the workshop. I loaned it, because only with such a condition did the proud milliner accept them. So, in 1910, the first boutique of the brand Chanel appeared in Paris. At first there were hats, but later it was filled with other creations of the beginning couturier.

In 1913, with the money of Arthur, opened a second store in the resort town of Deauville. With the arrival of the Germans in France, in 1914, there were many wealthy refugees in Deauville. Gabrielle was able to return all the debts to Kapela and open another boutique in Biarritz, from where her procession across Europe began.

And Etienne and Arthur shared the whole year with Coco. She was at that time quietly engaged in business. Capel knew that this was a truly independent woman, and did not even try to make her his wife.

The battle remained the main love of her life. In 1919, he died in a car crash. The one who gave her everything, again made him survive the terrible feeling from childhood - complete emptiness and loneliness.

Gabriel Chanel: personal life

Life continued. In 1920, Koko met Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, the Grand Duke and cousin of the last Russian Tsar. He is young, handsome and not married. Their short-lived relationships help her forget about grief.

The Duke of Westminster is the richest man in England at that time. He arranged for her shows in London, without which success in Paris could not be hoped for. Koko admitted that only with him she felt protected and weak. He was able to replace her father. To marry her, the Duke was divorced for three years, but because of the inability to have a heir from Gabriel, they all broke up.

Paul Irib is a talented artist and sculptor. He was the first and last man with whom they were really going to get married. He died in the hospital after suffering a heart attack in her arms. It happened during a tennis match, shortly before the scheduled wedding. After his death in 1935, Chanel could not sleep peacefully for many years.

In the autumn of 1940 she begins to meet with the German subject Hans Günther von Dinklage. Nobody approved this connection. Of course, Koko did not give a damn about everyone. Thanks to relations with Hans, she is expelled from the country, he follows her. But the family did not work out again, and on this, Chanel stops looking for happiness in love, completely surrendering to work.

War

By the 40th, Gabriel Chanel, whose photo you see in the article, had five stores at the Rue Cambon in Paris. With the fascist occupation, they were all closed down. During the war, it revolved in the circles of the Nazis, because only then they could buy her goods. But, it should be noted that having commercial interest, she never thought about political coups.

By the end of the war, the arrests of the collaborators began - and was interrogated by Koko. They say that before entering the precinct, she said: "If I do not have a long time, call Churchill." She was not arrested, but she was strongly advised to leave France for her connection with the Nazis.

This motherland she could not forgive ever. Having spent 9 years of exile in Switzerland, Chanel bequeathed to bury herself there.

Return

In 1954, 15 years after the closure of the House, she returned. But the sensation ended in failure - the public did not accept the collection. Chanel was tearing and throwing. She could not give up the primacy of Dior, whose new-onion Parisians valued for splendor, deliberate decorativeness and bright colors. Koko has always promoted restrained luxury and dreamed not about the seasonal style, but about the noble classics.

With a grim frenzy, she set about creating the second collection and emerged victorious. She achieved recognition, surpassing the men who reigned at the time at the Olympus fashion.

Koko ascended to never again descend from the podium. She returned to fashion convenience, beauty and elegance. Her style is an eternal classic, a sign of good taste, a hymn of simplicity and luxury, the freedom to be yourself.

Care

On January 11, 1971, when going to work, she felt ill. The ampoule with the usual drug did not succumb, only the maid could open it. But the injection did not help. She died of a heart attack in the replacing her home room hotel "Ritz" in Paris. It was the first day in her life when she did not go to work.

Russian trace in the life of Chanel

What "Russian trace" left the famous Coco Chanel? Here are some facts:

• Based on the Russian men's shirt, Koko came up with a blouse that became a business classics for French women.
• The imperishable aroma of Chanel №5 is the development of the Moscow perfumer Ernest Bo.
• The perfume bottle Chanel came up with herself, taking as a basis the shtaf of Russian vodka, donated by Romanov.
• The first "Russian Seasons" of Diaghilev in Europe was paid for by Coco.
• When the "Russian Ballet" does not have enough money to pay for Diaghilev's funeral in Venice, she will again take care of herself.
• Her house was the home of the immigrated Russian intelligentsia.

Little-known facts

Interesting facts from the life of Coco Chanel:

• Being shortsighted, my whole life was embarrassed by glasses and wore them in a bag.
• During the sea cruise the Duke of Westminster gave her a rare emerald. Admiring the stone in the expensive frame, she threw it into the water.
• Only after her death, the world learned that Chanel was reducing her age by 10 years.
• Since 1935, after the death of Paul Irib, she began to inject semi-legal drug "Sedol" and did it for the rest of her life. Chanel claimed that she uses this medicine only once a day.
• With the "filing" of the Romanovs used in the workshops cheap labor - a refugee from Russia.
• A firm black toe on light shoes is her way of visually shortening the 40th foot size with a height of 169 cm.
• One of the first to invite famous people to advertise their brand, providing promoted products as a gift.

Here is such an interesting person - Gabriel "Coco" Chanel. Someone will envy her, someone will admire her ... In any case, there is someone from whom to take an example ...