Fashion
Flashy, excessive and based around an uncomfortable corset, huge dresses to the ankles, big hats, and small bags – this is what fashion looked like before Coco Chanel. Back in 1920’s women were still thought to be less than men and were dressed conservatively. The ideal woman’s silhouette resembled the letter “s”. Bodies must have had hourglass shape, so with corset, waists were forced into tiny circlets measuring less than 20 inches.
The change in fashion industry started in France, where little girl, called Gabrielle Chanel was born in 1883. She was raised in orphanage. She had hard life, had dreams of becoming clothing designer, but because of the lack of money, she had to sing at a Café-concert, which was a popular entertainment venue of the era. With singing she wanted to raise money for her shop, but she was not very talented at singing. She was beautiful, so she found another way – she became mistress of French ex-cavalry officer and the wealthy textile hair Etienne Balsan. She lived in his mansion, was the part of social events and Balsan lavished her with diamonds, dresses and pearls, but Coco fell in love with his friend, Captain Arthur Edward Capel. He was wealthy member of the English upper class and the person, who financed Chanel’s first shops. Even though they were together for nine years, Capel married English aristocrat, Lady Diana wyndham, but this didn’t mean that he would break up with Chanel. They were still dating, but he died in a car accident. These times were the hardest for Chanel and twenty five years after an accident, Chanel said: “His death was a terrible blow to me. In losing Capel, I lost everything. What followed was not a life of happiness, I have to say”.
After opening boutique in Deauville (which, as I said before, was financed by Arthur Capel), she introduced deluxe casual clothes suitable for leisure and sport. Chanel was the first designer to use jersey, which at that time was used for men’s underwear. It was...
