All You Need To Know About Chanel

Success doesn't happen randomly to Chanel, there is much hard work and perseverance behind this brand. More than 100 years of high standards through which Chanel has become and remained the leader and the pacesetter. Do you still wonder what is Chanel, why is a leading brand and so expensive? Here you will find the full answer.

Chanel is a so much known fashion and beauty brand on a global scale. Every item made by Chanel is something that stays in a woman's mind and makes her want to wear it. Chanel is the top luxury brand for strong, powerful and elegant people, famous for clothes, makeup, fragrances and accessories. One has to live in a cave to not know about this fashion brand and it is useful to know that high demand equals high prices.

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Clothes by a pace-setting lady

Chanel is a fashion and beauty luxury brand that was created by Coco Chanel who has started her career selling hats in 1910. After wearing an old jersey on a cold day, she was asked where she had that from. She took this as an opportunity to make clothes for her new customers. 

Coco was inspired by the men’s fashion of the time, several times wearing men’s items herself, thinking that they were much more comfortable. She also used them to make new styles of clothing that allowed women to move much more freely.  

Because the two-piece tweed suit Coco made was inspired by sportswear, it was initially not considered elegant. But Chanel saw the potential of this fabric and by making it more feminine, looking for alternative new colours, textures and materials, she got to create a new garment.

This actually became so popular and a source of inspiration for other designers of the time, especially after a famous actress of the time appeared wearing it in a magazine. The “Chanel’s uniform” comprising of a slim skirt and a collarless jacket has become an extraordinary outfit every lady wanted to have.

The Chanel suit got massive public attention being worn by the most influential women of the time, and one great example is the one which the First Lady of United States, Jackie Kennedy, wore in 1963.

Another great piece of design by Chanel, the little black dress worn with pearls by Audrey Hepburn in 1961, has become very popular, despite black being a colour predominantly used for mourning until 1920. 

Perfume for the modern woman, with the scent of a woman

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Although it has been created in 1921 it is still the world’s most iconic perfume, as BBC remarks. There is a story behind it as well. Coco Chanel wanted to dedicate a fresh perfume to the modern woman as she envisioned her, but it was challenging to find someone with the right skills. Back in the time, the only ingredient used to create fresh perfumes was citrus, but those did not last on the skin. (2011, Chanel No 5: The story behind the classic perfume)

Ernest Beaux from Grasse, an experimented perfumier for the royal family of Russia, has taken on the challenge. After several months of intense and elaborate work, he presented to Chanel 10 different samples. The chemists of the time have managed to isolate chemicals that were recreating fresh smell – aldehydes – and one of them smelled like soap, which was something she has been looking for. The idea of Beaux was to use them in a bigger proportion, a quantity like never before.

The reaction of Coco was “It was what I was waiting for. A perfume like nothing else. A woman’s perfume, with the scent of a woman.” This particular perfume that satisfied the tastes of Chanel was made of jasmine, rose, sandalwood and vanilla, which reminded her of her childhood in a monastery and then her life as a mistress. 

To celebrate the result, Coco told Beaux and other close friends to have dinner together at a restaurant and she sprayed the perfume around the table. Women were curious what was the smell and where it came from and so Chanel thought that it might really be a successful perfume, which really is.

Accessories like nothing else - you just want them

Although she loved jewellery and she thought that they are as important as perfume, she was wearing just two of them more often. One of them was a ring received from an old woman and a pearl necklace from a man that loved her.

In her creations, she was sometimes using extravagant pieces of jewellery with more cheap versions of them, such a paradox and such an effect that inspired designers and women in generations and generations after generations. (Dsfantiquejewelry)

What seems to be just a black bag, features the chessboard squares arranged on the diagonal, not printed, not painted, but made as a relief created through the stitching.

This type of bag has been recreated by so many other designers, either more exclusivist or more affordable and it will always be a statement piece in the wardrobe of any lady. The closing button detail is placed right in the centre of the Chanel logo, which might make you think it is a piece of style itself. 

Makeup - the finest ingredients, the most opulent colours and luxurious textures

One concept of her was that “If you’re sad, if you are disappointed in love, put on your makeup, give yourself some beauty care, put on lipstick, and attack” (Vogue).

Unhappy with the offer on market, she decided to create her own lipsticks, very pigmented and creamy, and much more wearable. In 1954 she redesigned the lipstick tube to resemble the Chanel 5 perfume bottle. The black rectangular shape of the lipstick tube with the Chanel logo on the top, and the lid made a little shorter to let visible the metallic holder of the lipstick are her contribution to the makeup industry. With an outstanding cut and mechanism, the base of the tube that holds the lipstick looks like a pedestal. This lipstick is a must-have for any powerful lady, still being the number one in sales of all time.

Bibliography:

Biography.com Editors, The Biography.com website, available at      https://www.biography.com/fashion-designer/coco-chanel accessed on 06/2021;

Vienna Vernose, (2020) The history of the Chanel tweed suit, The rich history behind what made one of the most legendary fashion pieces of all-time, available at https://www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/a26551426/history-of-chanel-tweed-suit/, accessed on 06/2021;

Makers Valley, (2017) History of the little black dress, Available at https://blog.makersvalley.net/history-of-the-little-black-dress, Accessed on 06/2021

Unknown Author, (2011) Chanel No 5: The story behind the classic perfume, Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13565155> Accessed on 06/2021

Dsfantiquejewelry, (2011) Coco Chanel Jewelry, Available at: <https://dsfantiquejewelry.com/blogs/time-blog/coco-chanel-jewelry-the-history> Accessed on 06/2021;

Lauren Valenti, (2017) The 3 Biggest Beauty Breakthroughs by Coco Chanel, Available at: <https://www.vogue.com/article/coco-chanel-beauty-breakthroughs-no-5> Accessed on 06/2021