How Coco Chanel Changed the Fashion of Women

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was one of the 20th century’s most influential tourists. She was a miller and moved beyond hats to become a rebel and a pioneer of the fashion world, creating a new sartorial style that freed women from corsets and lace tops by offering sailor shirts and wide-leg pants instead.

“Nothing is more beautiful than the freedom of the body,” she once said, and her designs lived up to the following words: Chanel’s silhouettes were flowing and androgynous, her designs loose and – in the case of her iconic little black dress, or LBD – – democratic. She wanted women to move and inhale her clothes, just as men did in theirs. Her work was in many ways a form of female emancipation.

Sunday marks 50 years since Chanel’s death at the age of 87, though her legacy exists. In addition to revolutionizing how we dress, she has helped shape a new ideal of what a fashion brand can be: an all-encompassing force that can tend to all aspects of a woman’s life, from formal attire to holiday wardrobes and evening wear.

Chanel captured her vision in ‘Coco-isms’ which read like sharp predecessors of today’s ubiquitous inspirational quotes -‘ a woman who does not wear perfume has no future ‘or’ If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack. ”

Here are 8 key style innovations from a designer who once said, “I do not fashion. I am fashion.”

Women’s trousers

Chanel did not invent women’s trousers – it was already in the cupboards during the First World War when women began to take jobs that were traditionally performed by men. But she unquestionably popularized them as a fashion garment.

The designer liked to wear pants herself (she often borrowed them from her male lovers) and started sporting a flowing ‘beach pajamas’ as early as 1918 while on holiday on the French Riviera. Inspiration draws from the straight, wide cuts of sailor pants, giving them a loose, comfortable shape, and fitting them with oversized shirts or sleeveless tops.

The garment at the time was considered a risk due to the pajamas of the pajamas, but by the mid-twenties it became an important part of wealthy ladies and a list of Chanel’s collections.

Seafaring

French sailors and fishermen have been working on Breton tops since the 19th century – striped sweaters made of densely knitted wool to protect them from the elements. However, Chanel has turned it into fashion.

Striped pieces appeared in her boutique in the community resort of Deauville, Normandy, in the 1910s. She processed them into sweater, gave them bags and fitted them with thick belts. The nautical look was comfortable and far less serious than the tight aesthetics of the Belle Époque, which quickly became a hit among stylish women on and off the beach.

Soon, Breton stripes could be found on the pages of British and American Vogue. And even today, chances are you have some in your closet.

Costume jewelry

Mixing the high and the low is common use in fashion today. But it is considered radical when Chanel introduces costume jewelery in her collections, which becomes something considered cheap and tough, a symbol of modern style (though her early rival Paul Poiret should be attributed to the pioneering trend).

“A woman must mix false and genuine,” Chanel once declared. “The point of jewelry is not to make a woman look rich, but to adorn her; not the same thing.”

In the early 1930s, she worked with Italian jeweler Duke Fulco de Verdura to make her iconic Maltese Cross shackles, adorned with multicolored semi-precious stones. At the end of that decade, she released signature chains of dangling, graceful chains and interwoven with faux pearls and glittering stones. More layers of false pearls followed – proudly worn by Chanel himself – and a trend was born.

The little black dress

In 1926, Vogue published a drawing of a simple black calf coat, made from crepe de chine. It has long narrow sleeves and a low waist and was adorned with a string of pearls. The magazine described it as ‘Chanel’s Ford’, referring to the then popular Model T. In other words, it was a garment that was so simple that it would be accessible to any buyer – a kind of uniform for all women of taste, “as the publication puts it.

The ensemble was called the ‘black black dress’, and the rest is history. During the Great Depression, the LBD became the choice for an entire generation of female consumers, and in later decades an important part of women’s caste. Countless repetitions and imitations followed, but the understated elegance of Chanel’s original number remains unmatched.

The Chanel suit

The Chanel suit was an exchanger – not only for fashion, but also for female liberation.

Coco Chanel presents her first two-piece set in the 1920s, inspired by menswear and sportswear, as well as the costumes of her then-lover, the Duke of Westminster. Chanel was determined to free women from the restrictive corsets and long skirts of previous decades, and made a thin skirt and a jacket without a collar from tweed, a fabric that was then considered impeccable.

The suit was modern, slightly masculine in its cut and ideal for the post-war woman who made her first foray into the business world. Its popularity has continued over the years and consists of collections from the house of Chanel, including those of Karl Lagerfeld.

Some of the most influential women of all time also wore the Chanel suit, from Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly to Brigitte Bardot and Princess Diana.

Chanel No.5

Chanel introduced her No.5 perfume of the same name in 1921. A year earlier, according to legend, she had challenged French-Russian perfume Ernest Beaux to create a fragrance that would make its wearer smell like a woman and not like a rose. “The result was a blend of 80 natural and synthetic ingredients, with which Beaux presented her with a numbered range of perfume samples.

She chooses the fifth. The mixture undermined the idea of ​​fragrances as a symbol of high social class, but pushed the idea that women can be several things: natural and artificial, challenging and pure.

“That was what I was waiting for,” Chanel later said. “A perfume like nothing else. The perfume of a woman, with the fragrance of a woman.”

It was also one of the biggest and most successful branding practices in the history of fashion. By prominently placing her name on every bottle and advertisement for her perfumes, Chanel has linked it to the home’s identity forever.

Jersey skirt

Chanel loved sweater. The fabric was particularly prominent in her pieces influenced by sportswear, much to the shock of her clients, who were accustomed to satin and silk.

It was an unusual choice at the time: jerseys were until then mostly used for men’s underwear.

But it was easy to work with and comfortable; it includes everything the designer wants to create for her customers. What was important to Chanel, always the entrepreneur, was that it was also relatively inexpensive, and it helped keep costs low when she established herself and her label.

She was the first designer to make sweaters popular in women’s fashion by using the materials for dresses, skirts, sweaters and more – a tradition that Lagerfeld maintained as creative director in the decades after her death.

The 2.55 bag

One of the most iconic Chanel cases of all time, the 2.55 undermined all the rules when it was introduced in February 1955 (hence the name). It was the first luxury bag for women to come with a shoulder strap – earlier claws, including those from Chanel, all had to be worn by hand.

The groundbreaking adaptation offered new freedom to women and changed the way women’s bags were designed. Critics considered the 2.55 inappropriate, but buyers loved it. And practically it was decided: the chain strap can double and swing from one shoulder, an outside flap bag is designed to store cash and the central bag is perfectly shaped for lipstick.

The 2.55 also introduced two Chanel signatures: the deep burgundy color used in the lining, and the diamond-embroidered quilted work, inspired by jackets worn by men during the races.

Top image: Coco Chanel with Duke Laurino of Rome on a beach on the Lido.