Gabrielle Chanel to Coco Chanel
In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. Coco Channel
Different she was, it all began with her being the daughter of an unmarried woman and a street vendor selling garments. Born as Gabrielle Bonheur no one knew this child would one day be Vichy France’s most influential lady and a fashion icon in latter life. Carrying her father’s name Gabrielle started her journey as Gabrielle Chanel. After being sent to a convent by her father, Gabrielle coped with her mother’s death and learned the skill that would change her story and shape her very future. She sew and sewing became the best of her skills. She started her career as a seamstress and when she was away from her needles she sang in a cabaret frequented by cavalry officers. Gabrielle made her stage debut singing at a Cafe Concert Moulins pavilion. It was at this time that Gabrielle acquired the name “Coco”.
“Homosexuals? … I have seen young women ruined by these awful queers: drugs, divorce, and scandal. They will use any means to destroy a competitor and to wreak vengeance on a woman. The queers want to be women but they are lousy women. They are charming!” -Paul Morand
From ripping those bed sheets to being a mistress, Gabrielle shaped herself in an oddly manner. Her experiences and her life changed rapidly. Gabrielle was the mistress of some of the most influential men of her time, but she never married. She had significant relationships with the poet Pierre Reverdy and the illustrator and designer Paul Iribe. She made a lot of acquaintances throughout her life and she knew how to cash in her influences.
In 1918, Gabrielle purchased the entire building at 31 Rue Cambon, which was situated in one of the most fashionable districts of Paris. In 1921, she opened what may be considered an early incarnation of the fashion boutique, featuring clothing, hats, and accessories, later expanded to offer jewellery and fragrance. During WW-II, specifically the Nazi seizure of all Jewish owned property and business enterprises, provided Gabrielle with the opportunity to gain the full monetary fortune generated by Parfum Chanel and its most profitable product, Chanel №5.
After her wars in her career and winning and losing many battles she had become tyrannical and extremely lonely late in life. In her last years she was sometimes accompanied by Jacques Chazot and her confidante Lilou Marquand. As 1971 began, Gabrielle was 87 years old, tired, and ailing. She carried out her usual routine of preparing the spring catalogue. She had gone for a long drive the afternoon of Saturday, 9 January. Soon after, feeling ill, she went to bed early. She died on Sunday, 10 January 1971, at the Hotel Ritz, where she had resided for more than 30 years.
“I don’t know why women want any of the things men have when one of the things that women have is men”. -Coco Chanel
She was a daughter a seamstress a singer a lover a mistress a fashion designer a businesswoman and most of all she became a legacy!
Her life that she spent was full of ups and downs yet she played every role and she found dignity in it, for the world she was complete but from inside she was an empty shell. Her work, her contributions will remain for this world but in the end she still didn’t find what she was looking for. Maybe Gabrielle didn’t know herself what she wanted. Fame! Money! Success! Love she had all that yet she was empty! In the end, world remembers her as Coco Chanel but for Gabrielle she was always and always had been Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel.
