Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (1883–1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman, best known for her clothing, jewellery, handbags and fragrance. Born into poverty, she founded the fashion business that would bear her name and moved in circles of the rich and famous in 1920s and 30s Paris. Her elegant designs inspired women to wear simple yet sophisticated outfits. Among her classics were the Chanel suit, costume jewellery and the “little black dress.” She is also famous for her perfume, Chanel No. 5.

Early life

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in Saumur in the Loire region of France in 1883. Her mother, Eugénie Jeanne Devolle Chanel, was a laundrywoman. Her father, Albert Chanel, was a street vendor who travelled from town to town selling work clothes and undergarments. Jeanne died when Gabrille was only 11. Her father sent her and her sisters to the convent of Aubazine, ran by the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary, "founded to care for the poor and rejected, including ... abandoned and orphaned girls". While growing up there, the nuns taught her how to sew.
​​​​​​​

When she was 18, Gabrielle went to live in a boarding house for Catholic girls in the town of Moulins. She later worked as a seamstress, but also performed as a singer in a cabaret, from where she picked up the nickname "Coco".

In 1906, Coco went to look for work in the spa resort town of Vichy. She hoped to find success as a performer but failed to do so. She returned to Moulins, accepting that a serious stage career was not for her. There she met a young French ex-cavalry officer and wealthy heir, Étienne Balsan. She lived with him in his château, Royallieu, near Compiègne, enjoying a lifestyle of luxury. Two year later, she began a relationship with one of Balsan's friends, Englishman Captain Arthur Edward "Boy" Capel. His death in a car accident in 1919 came as a terrible blow to her.

First boutiques

Chanel had begun designing hats while living with Balsan and she opened a millinery shop (hat shop) on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910. Three years later, she opened a boutique—funded by Capel—in the seaside resort town of Deauville, selling casual and sportswear, such as jersey sweaters. These became popular with wealthy women seeking a more comfortable alternative to the corseted styles of the day. She opened another boutique in Biarritz, southwest France, in 1915 and a maison de couture fashion house at another address on the Rue Cambon in Paris in 1919.

Paris

Coco Chanel became a popular figure in Parisian artistic and musical circles, designing costumes for the Ballets Russes. Among the people she came to know at this time were the French playwright Jean Cocteau, Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. In 1923 she met the extremely wealthy Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, aboard his yacht, with whom she began a long relationship.

In 1921 Coco Chanel launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, the first scent to feature a designer’s name. In 1925 she introduced the Chanel suit, consisting of a collarless tweed jacket and flowing skirt, which once again was designed for comfort and practicality. The popular "little black dress", which could be worn either in the day or the evening when paired with strands of pearls, followed in 1926.

World War II

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Chanel fashion house closed down, putting 4000 female employees out of work. Chanel stayed in Paris during the Nazi German occupation. She lived at the Hotel Ritz, which was also used as the headquarters of the German military. She was openly antisemitic (hostile towards Jews) and evidence later emerged that she worked as a Nazi agent at this time. After Paris was liberated in 1944, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with a Nazi officer Hans Günther von Dincklage. She was not charged as a collaborator, however, possibly thanks to an intervention by her friend, British prime minister Winston Churchill.

Last years

After a stay in Switzerland, Chanel felt the time was right for her to re-enter the fashion world. In 1954, already in her 70s, she returned to Paris to revive the Chanel fashion house. She was still working at the age of 87 when she died on 10th January 1971, at the Hotel Ritz, where she had lived for more than 30 years.

​​​​​​​It was only after death that French intelligence agencies released documents that revealed Coco Chanel's wartime activities, damaging her reputation. As a fashion designer and icon she has nevertheless earned lasting fame.