How Coco Chanel changed the course of women’s fashion

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was one of the most influential couturiers of the 20th century. As a milliner by training, she went beyond hats to become a rebel and forerunner of the fashion world, creating a new sartorial style that liberated women from corsets and lace fringes by offering them sailor shirts and wide legs.

“Nothing is more beautiful than freedom of the body,” she once said, and her designs lived by these words: Chanel’s silhouettes were fluid and androgynous, her designs loose and – in the case of her iconic little black dress, or LBD – democratic. . She wanted women to be able to move and breathe in her clothes, just like men in theirs. In many ways her work was a form of women’s empowerment.

On Sunday it will be 50 years since Chanel died at the age of 87, although her legacy remains. Not only did she revolutionize the way we dress, but she also helped shape a new ideal of what a fashion brand could be: an all-encompassing force that could affect all aspects of a woman’s life, from formal wear to holiday wardrobes and evening wear.

Chanel captured her vision in “Coco-isms,” which read like caustic precursors to today’s ubiquitous inspirational quotes – “a woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future” or “When you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack. ”

Here are 8 major style innovations from a designer who once famously said, “I don’t do fashion. I am fashion.”

Ladies trousers

Chanel didn’t invent women’s pants – they had already entered the wardrobe during World War I, when women started taking jobs traditionally performed by men. But she made them undeniably popular as a fashion garment.

The designer herself liked to wear trousers (she often borrowed them from her male lovers), and started wearing elegant ‘beach pajamas’ during a holiday on the French Riviera in 1918. Inspired by the straight, wide cuts of sailor pants, giving them a loose, comfortable shape, she paired them with oversized shirts or sleeveless tops.

The garment was considered daring at the time for its association of pajamas with the bedroom, but by the mid-1920s it became a staple of wealthy ladies and a fixture in Chanel’s collections.

Nautical tops

French sailors and fishermen had worn Breton tops since the 19th century – striped sweaters made of sturdy knitted wool to protect them from the elements. However, Chanel turned them into fashion.

Striped pieces appeared at her boutique in the seaside town of Deauville, Normandy, in the 1910s. She reworked them into jersey, gave them patch pockets and accessorized them with thick belts. The nautical look was casual and far less serious than the stiff belle époque aesthetic, and quickly became a hit with stylish women on and off the beach.

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

Costume jewelry

Mixing the high with the low is common in fashion these days. But it was considered radical when Chanel introduced costume jewelry into its collections, making something considered cheap and tacky a symbol of modern style (although her early rival Paul Poiret should be credited as pioneering the trend).

“A woman must combine fake and real,” Chanel once stated. “Jewelry is not about making a woman look rich, but about decorating her; not the same.’

In the early 1930s, she teamed up with Italian jeweler Duke Fulco de Verdura on what would become her iconic Maltese Cross cuffs, adorned with multicolored semi-precious stones. Towards the end of that decade, she released signature necklaces made from dangling dainty chains and woven with fake pearls and glittering stones. More layered wisps of fake pearls followed – worn proudly by Chanel herself – and a trend was born.

The little black dress

In 1926, Vogue published a drawing of a simple, calf-length black dress made from crepe de Chine. It had long, narrow sleeves and a low waist, and was decorated with a pearl necklace. The magazine described it as’ Chanel’s Ford ‘, referring to the then wildly popular Model T. In other words, it was a piece of clothing so simple it could be accessible to any shopper -‘ a kind of uniform for all women of taste. ‘, as the publication put it.

The ensemble was dubbed the “little black dress”, and the rest is history. During the Great Depression, the LBD became the outfit of choice for an entire generation of female consumers, and in later decades an essential part of women’s wardrobes everywhere. Numerous iterations and imitations followed, but the understated elegance of Chanel’s original song remains unmatched.

The Chanel suit

The Chanel suit changed the game – not just for fashion, but also for the liberation of women’s clothing.

Coco Chanel introduced her first two-piece set in the 1920s, inspired by menswear and sportswear, as well as the suits of her then-lover, the Duke of Westminster. To free women from the restrictive corsets and long skirts of previous decades, Chanel designed a slim skirt and a collarless tweed jacket, a fabric that was then considered strikingly unglamorous.

The suit was modern, somewhat masculine in cut, and ideal for the post-war woman who was making her first foray into the business world. Its popularity continued over the years, appearing in the Chanel house collections, including Karl Lagerfeld’s.

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 launched her eponymous No. 5 perfume in 1921. A year earlier, legend has it, she challenged the Franco-Russian perfumer Ernest Beaux to create a fragrance that would make its wearer smell like a woman, and not a rose. The result was a blend of 80 natural and synthetic ingredients, which gave Beaux a numbered array of perfume samples to choose from.

She chose the fifth. The blend undermined the idea of ​​fragrances as a symbol of high social class, but instead pushed the idea that women could be multiple things: natural and artificial, provocative and pure.

“It was what I was waiting for,” Chanel said later. ‘A perfume like nothing else. A women’s perfume, with the scent of a woman. ‘

It was also one of the largest and most successful branding exercises in the history of fashion. By prominently putting her name on every bottle and advertising her perfumes, Chanel forever linked them to the identity of the house.

Jersey dresses

Chanel loved jersey. The fabric was especially prominent in her sportswear-influenced pieces, much to the shock of her customers, who were used to satin and silk.

Before that it was an unusual choice: Jersey was mainly used for men’s underwear until then.

But it was easy to work with and comfortable, encompassing everything the designer wanted to create for her clients. Importantly to Chanel, once the entrepreneur, it was also relatively inexpensive and helped keep costs down while establishing herself and her label.

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

The 2.55 bag

One of the most iconic Chanel bags of all time, the 2.55 broke all the rules when it launched in February 1955 (hence the name). It was the first luxury bag for women with a shoulder strap – previous clutches, including Chanel’s, all had to be carried by hand.

The groundbreaking adaptation offered women new freedom and changed the way women’s bags were designed. Critics found the 2.55 ill-mannered, but shoppers liked its practicality. And practical it was sure: the chain strap could be worn double and swing off one shoulder, an outer flap pocket was designed to store cash, and the central pocket was perfectly shaped for lipstick.

The 2.55 also introduced two Chanel signatures: the deep burgundy color used in the lining and the quilted quilting, inspired by jackets that men wore during the races.

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