Coco Chanel 2 part of 5 – The Revolutionary

“I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.”                                                 Coco Chanel

In 1908 thanks to Balsan, Chanel meets Boy Capel. Boy was a Newcastle industrialist engaged in coal export. Capel, becomes his lover or “the love of his life”, encouraged and financed the work of Chanel. In fact, in 1910, he lend to Coco the money to open his hat boutique at 21 Rue Cambon in Paris, where the two went to live.

Two years later, Chanel also began to sell clothes such as sweaters, skirts and some clothes, which she herself draped directly on the mannequin without drawing the sketch e and then had a tailor sew.

The first Chanel dress was worn by actress Suzanne Orlandi, a black velvet dress decorated with a simple white collar. For Coco, black and white were the colours par excellence, of absolute beauty and together they formed the perfect accord.

In 1913, with the help of Capel, Chanel opened a new store in the seaside resort of Deauville (in Normandy France), between the Grand Casino and the Normandie Hotel, the most luxurious hotel of the place.

And here, Chanel taking inspiration from sailors at work, makes sweaters with the same neckline. The style of Chanel was born from the observation of the common life of the people around her, Coco tried to give the dress practicality, comfort, elegance and femininity in the simplicity of her clothes, all things that gorgeous dresses with bustiers and the huge hats of the Belle Époque prevented.

Despite the outbreak of World War I, in 1915, Coco Chanel opened a boutique in Biarritz, on the Atlantic coast of France and his career began to take off.

In 1916, she bought a batch of jersey that she began to use for her clothes, a real novelty that allowed her the following year to expand her business, which included 2 boutiques, 5 workshops and 300 workers. Soon her name began to circulate even in the world of artists, while in the Twenties she launched the fashion of short hair: she had burned her hair on a stove, cut off the remaining ones and here a new fashion was conceive.

In 1918, Chanel gave back Boy Capel the sum he had lent him. Their relationship continued until the night between 22 and 23 December 1919 when, due to a car accident, he lost his life at the age of 38.

Word of mouth…Scilla 

                                                     to be continue…

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