Coco Chanel

Analysis Project

There have been many women of great influence throughout the years, but in the world of fashion there was one above all the rest: Coco Chanel. After years of triumphs and failures, she gracefully stated, “Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve”. Gabrielle Coco Chanel was a great woman of her time, from her humble beginnings to becoming the most influential designer of all time, she incorporated good looks and comfort for women of the 1920's and formed a strong capital investment for herself even after her death. Born on August 19, 1883, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was destined to be a notable face in the French and global fashion scene. She was given the very fitting middle name of Bonheur, meaning happiness, by a nun in the convent hospital where she was delivered. The young Gabrielle enjoyed being in the company of friends and was always filled with stories. There was one story that proved her intent to participate in fashion, and that was the habitual action of cutting up the curtains in the living room to make dresses for her dolls. What a magnificent way to prepare for a life of style. Chanel began designing heavily during the 1920s. Her first outfits were wool jerseys, and were very simple. She became famous for the simple look of her extremely classy outfits. Chanel stayed away from the vivid colors of many of the other designers of the time. Instead, she used blacks, navy, and tan almost exclusively. Unlike many designers who primarily made dresses and

suits, Chanel also designed jackets, hats, and costume jewelry. When presenting a show, she did not have to accessorize her models with designs from other houses. Chanel No. 5 perfume was created in the 1920‘s, by Coco Chanel; this creation was the beginning of one of the legendary names in perfumes. This brand name has parlayed into a world leading retail empire. Chanel No. 5 has been the world’s top-selling perfume of all time. No.5 is the first fragrance launched by Chanel. Chanel No.5 has a series of ads. In each ad Chanel tries always to be unique and seeks for new, different ideas and techniques to enhance the effectiveness of the ad. No.5 The Film is one of Chanel's different ads. This ad is a very unique and successful ad which really enhanced the product's value. In this ad, Chanel used a creative Fairy tale with different techniques to promote for the idea that No.5 is a unique, unforgettable, and long lasting perfume that makes every women special. Coco Chanel wasn't just ahead of her time. She was ahead of herself. She started as a hat maker to the divas, and they revealed her name to Paris, little did she know her business would soon grow into something never known in the history. If one looks at the work of contemporary fashion designers as different from one another as Tom Ford, Helmut Lang, Miuccia Prada, Jil Sander and Donatella Versace, one sees that many of their strategies echo what Chanel once did. The way, 75 years ago, she mixed up the vocabulary of male and female clothes and created fashion that offered the wearer a feeling of hidden luxury rather than ostentation are just two examples of how her taste and sense of style overlaps with today's fashion. Chanel would not have defined herself as a feminist in fact, she consistently spoke of femininity rather than of feminism yet her work is unquestionably part of the liberation of women. She threw out a life jacket, as it were, to women not once but twice, during two distinct

periods decades apart: the 1920s and the '50s. She not only appropriated styles, fabrics and articles of clothing that were worn by men but also, beginning with how she dressed herself, appropriated sports clothes as part of the language of fashion. One can see how her style evolved out of necessity and defiance. She couldn't afford the fashionable clothes of the period--so she rejected them and made