Gabrielle "coco" Chanel

She claimed her birthday of 1893 and a birthplace of Auvergne. But Gabrielle Chanel, later known as Coco Chanel, was truly born in 1883 in Saumur, France in the place where her mother, Jeanne Devolle worked. With a horrific past behind her consisting of her mother dying when Chanel was only six years old. Her father, Albert Chanel was left to care for the five children. He then abandoned them, leaving them in the care of either their two aunts or in an orphanage. My resources were not very clear on where they were left. But from there, Chanel spent 7 years learning the ways of being a seamstress. Later on, her career pushed on in a hat designer in 1908. She then continued on to open her first boutique in Paris around 1914. From there her career exploded into a continuous success, She continued to open more boutiques. Around 1916 Chanel took a simple material, Jersey and turned it into a flattering clothing line for women. This line was manufactured by Radeir. Chanel produced many different varieties of apparel for women from then on. Her designs were called, “Highly Original”. Chanel was constantly taking ideas for her designs from men’s apparel and re-making them in to suitable apparel for women. Chanel’s lines introduced “Chanel Suits”, the ever popular little black dress and costume jewelry. When the introduction of Chanel’s first and most popular perfume, Chanel NÐ'o5, she could continue to finance her “Couture Empire”. Chanel could now expand herself into different lines. She launched her signature cardigan jacket along with the little black dress some time after that, both of these pieces were and still are included in every Chanel collection. European designer, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel continued to touch many American and European designers until her death on January 10th, 1971. She was 88 years old when she died. Before she died, the Chanel house brought in about 160 million dollars a year. After her death, several of her assistants took over the collections and designed them until Karl Lagerfeld took over the Chanel House. He has been the chief designer since 1983. He took Chanel’s pieces and added his own touch to them without taking away the sense of Chanel in the pieces. Lagerfeld has continued to awe people collection after collection, keeping Chanel alive in people’s souls. Chanel did