Gabrielle coco chanel biography pictures
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Early Success
Among the key designers who made a bold and lasting impression on women’s fashion in the twentieth century, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883–1971) deserves special recognition. Born in Saumur, in the Loire Valley of France, Chanel survived an impoverished childhood and strict convent education. The difficulties of her early life inspired her to pursue a radically different lifestyle, first on the stage, where she acquired the nickname “Coco,” and then as a milliner.
With the help of one of the male admirers who would provide key financial assistance and social connections over the course of her career, Chanel opened her first shop in Paris in 1913, followed by another in the resort town of Deauville. Selling hats and a limited line of garments, Chanel’s shops developed a dedicated clientele who quickly made her practical sportswear a great success. Much of Chanel’s clothing was made of jersey, a choice of fabric both unusual and inspired. Until the designer began to wo
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The true story of Coco Chanel's childhood: In search of Gabrielle
Features correspondent
The butcher was the only place in the Auvergne by of Courpière that showed any signs of life when inom visited on an August afternoon. A handful of half-timbered houses and shuttered windows, this sleepy little place was allegedly once home to one of the world's most famous fashion designers: Coco, née Gabrielle, Chanel. Tracking down anything concrete was proving difficult, however, and records of her early life were no more substantial than a whiff of her No. 5 in the breeze.
The lack of clarity about where Chanel came from doesn't stop people thinking they know who she was. Part of this is due to media misrepresentation. Feuds with rival designers (thanks to the Broadway musical, Coco, starring Katharine Hepburn). Rumours that her older sister Julia took her own life, and that Julia's son André was in fact Coco Chanel's il
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It would have been particularly easy for Chanel to lose herself in parties after the breakdown of her relationship with Boy Capel - in 1918 he married Diana Wyndham, a daughter of Lord Ribblesdale - and then his death, in a car accident, in December 1919. 'His death was a terrible blow to me,' she said later. 'I lost everything when I lost Capel He left a void in me that the years have not filled.' Yet Chanel busied herself with work and, after several months in mourning and then a trip to Italy with Misia and her husband, she returned to Paris ready to live again. Following an affair with Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich - who introduced her, in 1920, to Ernest Beaux, the man who helped her create Chanel No. 5 - she embarked on a long relationship with the 2nd Duke of Westminster.
The designer met Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor in Monte Carlo, after an introduction by Chanel's friend and public-relations adviser, the socialite Vera Bate. Although Chanel was rich