Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel biography little black dress

Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur Coco Chanel (aged 87) was born 19 August 1883 and dead 10 January 1971. She was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. Her extraordinary influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

photo by teadrinker (c) from flickr
Coco Chanel died of a heart attack in her private suite at the Hôtel Ritz Paris on 10 January 1971, at the age of 87. She was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland and her tombstone is carved with lion heads representing her birth sign, Leo.
British singer Ana Silvera has written a song inspired by the life of Coco Chanel called 'Notes from an Opera'
In 2008 a children's book entitled Different like Coco was published it depicted the humble childhood of Coco Chanel and chronicled about how she made drastic changes to the fashion industry.
Coco & Igor is a novel, written by Chris Greenhalgh, which depicts the affair between Chanel and Igor Stravinsky and the creative achievements that this affair inspired. The novel was first published in 2003.
Chanel was portrayed by Katharine Hepburn on Broadway in the 1969 musical Coco, with music by André Previn, lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner, musical direction by Robert Emmett Dolan, orchestration by Hershy Kay, and dance arrangements by Harold Wheeler.
CHANEL: Coco Chanel parle de la mode

After 40 previews, the production opened on 18 December 1969 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, where it ran for 329 performances. Hepburn was nominated for a Tony Award.
hanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton and Rutger Hauer.
As of February 2008, several biopics of Chanel are in production.
The American television movie Coco Chanel debuted on 13 September 2008 on Lifetime Television, starring Shirley MacLaine as a 70-year-old Chanel. Directed by Christian Duguay, the film also starred Barbora Bobulova as the young Chanel, Olivier Sitruk as Boy Capel, and Malcolm McDowell.
There is also a film starring Audrey Tautou as the young Coco, titled Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel), which was released on 22 April 2009. Filming on the project began 15 September 2008. The film hints at Chanel's rumoured lesbian affairs.
Another film concerns the affair between Chanel and the composer Igor Stravinsky. Chosen to close the Cannes Film Festival of 2009, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is directed by Jan Kounen and stars Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen. The film is based on the 2002 novel Coco & Igor by Chris Greenhalgh.
Coco Avant Chanel - L'amore prima del mito-Trailer

Two more projects are said to be in the works: one directed by Daniele Thompson; and one to star Demi Moore. info (c) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Chanel
In 1923, Coco Chanel said to Harper's Bazaar that "Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance." Coco Chanel always kept the clothing she designed simple, comfortable and revealing. Unlike most designers in that Europe, she kept the woman inside the clothes at the center of her creations. "I gave women a sense of freedom; I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to fashion's finery, lace, corsets, underclothes, padding." She took what were considered poor fabrics like jersey and upgraded them. Chanel's style is popularly associated with the image of the 1920s flapper, a "new breed" of self-confident young women that challenged the established concept of socially acceptable behavior. The flappers demonstrated their independence through new looks and attitude, such as short skirts and haircuts, openly using cosmetics, and being seen to smoke and drink cocktails. Compared to previous generations of women the flappers also showed an increased level of activity, pursuing athletic sports, driving their own automobiles, and going out to nightclubs where they could listen to jazz music and do energetic dances such as the Charleston.
The iconic Chanel jacket is a symbol of this design philosophy. A Chanel couture jacket has numerous design and construction details that distinguish it from a tailored jacket as traditionally constructed. For example, these jackets lack the complex inner structure of interfacings, pad stitching, and facings commonly used in bespoke tailoring. Rather, the silk lining is machine quilted directly to the fashion fabric, the long exterior seams of the fashion fabric are machine sewn, then the shoulder fashion fabric seams are machine sewn. The interior lining seams and the outside edges of the lining are turned under and hand stitched to the edge of the jacket. The three piece sleeve (another distinctive Chanel feature) is constructed in a similar manner, then hand sewn to the body of the jacket. The heavy trims, cast metal buttons and the curbed chain sewn to the hem have a functional purpose by adding weight to a garment that is really nothing more than fashion fabric and lining. The end result is a supremely comfortable garment, more like a sweater than a traditional jacket. Most of her fashions had a staying power, and didn't change much from year to year—or even generation to generation.
Chanel came out with her first signature fragrance, Chanel No. 5, in 1921. The perfume was the first to have a designer's name attached to it, and it has enjoyed tremendous success since its introduction. In this way, Chanel set the standard for successive designers to do the same.