Her achievements are undeniable. However, many of Chanel 's life choices have generated controversy, particularly her behaviour during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. There are accusations that she was a Nazi spy, but was protected because she had influential friends. This research project proposes to investigate whether these accusations are true Before the war began Chanel began to make new friends who would help her during the war. In 1923 Vera Bate Lombardi helped get Chanel into the British society, an elite group social circle.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a world-renowned fashion designer during The Great Depression of the 1930s? Designers like Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet, Madame Grès, and Valentina Schlee most certainly had this experience. The 30s was a decade full of incredible and influential designers who each brought their own style to the world of fashion. Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel, perhaps the most famous designer of the twentieth century, made some of her biggest contributions to fashion in the 1930s. “When Chanel was old enough to leave [the boarding school she was placed into after the abandonment of her father due to her mother’s death], the nuns found her a job at a local boutique, The House of Gramayre, where she worked as a shop assistant and seamstress” (“Overview-Chanel” 2).
According to Chanel, “My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville.” (Moeran 5). In 1925, Chanel introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. This was rather revolutionary for women because her dress borrowed elements of men’s wear but also emphasized comfort over the constraints of most women’s clothes at the time (Fernie 3). This suit became immensely popular along with another one of her iconic “Little Black Dress.” For this, she is noted for turning the color black, which symbolized mourning into something chic and fashionable and even formal (Media 12). With the popularity of her costumes, Chanel launched her first perfume, Chanel No.
As Chanel once said, “luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.” (Biography.com Editors, 2017, para. 5). Consecutively, she introduced the legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt by borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of fashion, which changed women’s clothing revolution (Biography.com Editors, 2017, para. 9). She became
Gisselle Lavariega Mrs. Johnson Senior paper Date (The Revolutionary Coco Chanel) Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, known to most as Coco Chanel, “Arguably the most influential fashion designer of all time, Coco Chanel revolutionised the way women wore clothes and paved a new way for the fashion brand, capitalising on the changing times she was living in and her status as a fashion icon”(Dunne). Her clothing designs, from the use of jersey to the Chanel suit demonstrate her rebellious to the common norm. Her impact changed the fashion industry completely to something once dominated by tight fitting, near strangulation attire to a more loose and comfortable fit suitable for every occasion. Her fingerprints are left on everything, looking into a clothing depart one could see T-shirt made from jersey, bags with the patted pattern and chain shoulder, garments of the color black, all originating from Channel’s fashion empire.The revolutionary idea of making attire apparel fit for what a woman wanted, in the changing world of the 1920s is Channel’s most memorable accomplishment.Despite many people pinpointing Chanel’s legacy to her personal life, it was actually her timeless designs and their influence on women’s historical apparel that created a longer lasting legacy that focused on women looking and feeling empowered. Chanel designs started circulating during a time in history when people were fancying themselves with consumerism and women wear putting down their corset, especially
From High Society to Holloway; How Lady Constance Lytton used her familial status to contribute to The Suffragette Movement and penal reform in Britain. (1908-1914) In Britain, throughout the Nineteenth century women had little impact on the politics of the nation. However, at the turn of the twentieth century, the demand for equal rights for women became more prevalent and many women across Britain began to campaign for the right to vote. These peaceful campaigns became known as the ‘Women’s Suffrage Movement’. However, these campaigns became increasingly militant and in 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union(WSPU).
Her rough childhood was her a big challenge but because this was before she began her business it only made her stronger for when she entered the highly critiqued world of fashion. The lowest point for Chanel’s company was in the 1930’s during the depression and world war II. Coco Chanel along with many other companies lost all their money and were forced to shut down. Chanel had to close her stores and fire all of her workers. During this time Chanel thought it was not a time for fashion.
Whether it be Susan B. Anthony, a women’s rights activist who dedicated most of her life for women to be able to obtain equal rights as men, or Coco Chanel, an influential women’s fashion designer who incorporated some of menswear into women’s attire like The Chanel Suit which was designed for women who wanted careers in male-dominating industries, they still played a role in women’s rights.
However, he had to leave work to serve in military at the outbreak of World War I. By the time he returned in 1919, his fortunes were overturned and his business was on the verge of bankruptcy. Other designers, especially Chanel, had filled the void in the market, putting an emphasis on superior workmanship along the way. Paul, whose clothes were made in layers, was stubborn in the face of this new market trend and this led to a sharp decline in his popularity. By the 1930s, his fame was at an all time low, his couture house closed and his stock by weight as rags.
When Coco Chanel was 12 years old, Chanel’s mother passed away and her father left the whole family because of his work so that she did not acquire enough knowledge and just learned the skill of a seamstress. However, when she lived in Paris, she began to design hats. She thought the women’s hats of the day were ridiculous and exaggerated, and she considered that the women’s hats of the day looked like a big garden worn by women, so she designed hats with those same clean lines, modest in their simplicity and classically timeless in design. Finally, Coco Chanel became a great designer and had a enormous company of clothes. Even if she did not pass the standardized test, she still achieved so much, and it’s evident that standardized test cannot measure students’ intelligence because intelligence is full of extremely big potential, and people will have a lot of opportunity to exploit the potential in the