Today is Coco Chanel’s birthday. The legendary designer was born August 19, 1883 in the small provincial town of Saumur, France. She grew up in abject poverty; her mother died when she was a young girl, and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel spent a good portion of her childhood in an orphanage. Her father was a drifter and abandoned her, yet this determined young woman rose to become one of fashion’s most significant icons, transforming not only the way women dressed, but the way women lived.
Today, we’re sharing a glimpse into Coco’s incredible life, in her own words.
On pride…
“Pride is present in whatever I do. It is the secret of my strength. It is both my flaw…and my virtue.”
On money…
“Without money, you are nothing, with money, you can do anything…I would say to myself, over and over, money is the key to freedom.”
On reading…
“The very worst book has something to say to you, something truthful. The silliest books are masterpieces of experience. I learned about life through novels. There you find all the great unwritten laws that govern mankind…From the serial novels to the greatest classics, all novels are reality in the guise of dreams.”
On selling…
“The more people came to call on me, the more I hid away…And I didn’t know how to sell: I’ve never known how to sell. When a customer insisted on seeing me, I went and hid in a cupboard…A customer seen is surely a customer lost.”
On working…
“My work came about as a reaction to my times.”
On success…
“I was self-taught; I learned badly, haphazardly. And yet when life put me in touch with those who were the most delightful and brilliant of my age, a Stravinsky or a Picasso, I never felt embarrassed. I had worked out on my own that which cannot be taught…It is with this that one succeeds. ”
On losing the love of her life, Arthur ” Boy” Capel…
“His death was a terrible blow to me…I lost everything when I lost Capel. He left a void in me that the years have not filled.”
On creating Chanel No. 5…
“I, who love woman, wanted to give her clothes in which she could be comfortable, in which she could drive a car, yet at the same time clothes that emphasized her femininity, clothes that flowed with her body. A woman is closest to being naked when she is well dressed. I wanted to give her a perfume, but an artificial perfume…I don’t want rose or lily of the valley; I want a perfume that is compound.”
On fashion…
“Fashion should express the place, the moment…fashion, like opportunity, is something that has to be grabbed by the hair.”
“Fashion is not an art; it is a job. If art makes use of fashion, then that is sufficient praise.”
On women…
“Women have always been the strong ones in the world. Men are always seeking from women a little pillow to put their heads down on. They are always longing for the mother who held them in her arms as an infant. Women must tell themselves always they are the ones. They are the big, the strong and the wonderful. In truth, women are the strong ones…it is the truth for me.”
On her life…
“My life is the story – and often the tragedy – of the solitary woman. Her woes, her importance, the unequal and fascinating battle she has waged with herself, with men, and with the attraction and dangers that spring up everywhere. Today, alone in the sunshine and the snow, I shall continue without husband, without children, without grandchildren, without those delightful illusions…
My life has been a prolonged childhood. That is how one recognizes the destinies in which poetry plays a part… I am not a heroine. But I have chosen the person I wanted to be.”
A young Coco Chanel, photographed in 1917 with her hair freshly cut short.
Coco Chanel, cover photo on the book, Coco Chanel, An Intimate Life by Lisa Chaney
Sources: The Allure of Chanel, – Paul Morand, Coco Chanel, An Intimate Life – Lisa Chaney. Photo credit at top, Coco Chanel, taken in 1936, Lipnitski. Photos of Chanel below from the book, Chanel and Her World – Edmonde Charles Roux.
Dedicated to Gabrielle Coco Chanel, 1883- 1971.
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