Coco Chanel was born on August 19th, 1883 as Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in a small town named Saumur, France. She was born to Jeanne Devolle , and Albert Chanel. Coco’s mother worked in a poorhouse also where Coco was born. Coco’s mother died at the age of 33, Coco that her mother died of tuberculosis but she really died of pregnancy, poverty, and pneumonia. Her father couldn’t take care of Coco and her 4 siblings so he put them in an orphanage where she learned the trade of a seamstress.
One of Coco’s sisters was pregnant and died shortly after birth so Coco took the …show more content…
He bought her a Parisian apartment and financed her first shops. The relationship lasted nine years, even after Capel married in 1918. Through the relationships of both men she was able to open her own millinery shop in Paris during 1910. She soon later opened two boutiques both Deauville and Biarritz. She was very successful she hired 300 staff and back all of her loans to Chapel. In 1919 her husband Arthur Edward Capel died in a devastating car crash, she had a roadside memorial at the site of the crash. Twenty-five years later she said to a friend "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.". During the 1920s, Coco Chanel became the first designer to create loose women's jerseys, traditionally used for men's underwear, creating a relaxed style for women ignoring the stiff corseted look of the time. They soon became very popular with clients, a post-war generation of women for whom the corseted restricted clothing seemed old-fashioned and impractical. By the 1920s, Maison Chanel was established at 31, Rue Cambon in Paris (which remains its headquarters to this day) and become a fashion force to be reckoned with. Chanel became a style icon herself with her striking bob haircut and tan placing her at the cutting edge of modern