Shop & Spend Coco Chanel
Queen of style French designer Coco Chanel revolutionised women's fashion, leaving a legacy that continues to shape the essence of style today “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” These words, spoken by Coco Chanel, have been repeated time and again by biographers recounting her relationship with fashion, offering readers an insight into the celebrated designer’s beliefs in the importance of good clothes. “Dress shabbily,” she once said, “and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” For Chanel, elegance, was key. Her great contribution to the style ethos of the age was to do away with the restrictive corsets and fussy designs that had previously characterised women’s fashion and introduce a new sleek style that would define well-dressed women for generations to come. While she moved in society circles for most of her adult life, Chanel’s own beginnings were far from glittering. Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, she spent much of her childhood in an orphanage, placed there by her father, a peddler, after her mother died. It was there that Chanel learned to sew. In her late teens, she
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1 & 5 Coco Chanel 2, 7 & 8 Chanel Spring/Summer '17 3 Chanel bag 4 The iconic Chanel No. 5 perfume 6 Historic Chanel shop in Rue Cambon 31 Paris, France
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