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Gabrielle Bonheur " Coco " Chanel ( SHƏ -nel 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. She founded the Chanel brand. She popularized a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style.

She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Chanel also designed jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5 , has become an iconic product, and Chanel herself designed her famed interlocked-CC monogram, which has been in use since the 1920s.

Her couture house closed in 1939, with the outbreak of World War II . Chanel stayed in France and was criticized during the war for collaborating with the Nazi-German occupiers. Chanel fell in love with a German diplomat, Baron ( Freiherr ) Hans Günther von Dincklage. After the war, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator due to intervention by British prime minister Winston Churchill .

When the war ended, Chanel moved to Switzerland, returning to Paris in 1954 to revive her fashion house.

Balsan and Capel

Deauville and biarritz, designing for film, world war ii, post-war life and career, jersey fabric, chanel suit, little black dress, the chanel bag.

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in 1883 to Eugénie Jeanne Devolle Chanel, known as Jeanne, a laundrywoman , in the charity hospital run by the Sisters of Providence (a poorhouse ) in Saumur , Maine-et-Loire. She was Jeanne's second child with Albert Chanel; the first, Julia, had been born less than a year earlier. Albert Chanel was a street vendor who sold work clothes and undergarments, living a nomadic life, travelling to and from market towns. The family resided in run-down lodgings. In 1884, he married Jeanne Devolle.

At birth, Chanel's name was entered into the official registry as "Chasnel". Jeanne was too unwell to attend the registration, and Albert was registered as "travelling". With both parents absent, the infant's last name was misspelled, probably due to a clerical error.

She went to her grave as Gabrielle Chasnel because to correct, legally, the misspelled name on her birth certificate would reveal that she was born in a poorhouse hospice. The couple had six children—Julia, Gabrielle, Alphonse (the first boy, born 1885), Antoinette (born 1887), Lucien, and Augustin (who died at six months)—and lived crowded into a one-room lodging in the town of Brive-la-Gaillarde .

When Gabrielle was 11, Jeanne died at the age of 32. The children did not attend school. Her father sent his two sons to work as farm laborers and sent his three daughters to the convent of Aubazine, which ran an orphanage. Its religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary, was "founded to care for the poor and rejected, including running homes for abandoned and orphaned girls". It was a stark life, demanding strict discipline. Her life in the orphanage may have contributed to Chanel's future career, as it was where she learned to sew. At age eighteen, Chanel, too old to remain at Aubazine, went to live in a boarding house for Catholic girls in the town of Moulins .

Later in life, Chanel would retell the story of her childhood somewhat differently; she would often include more glamorous accounts, which were generally untrue. She said that when her mother died, her father sailed for America to seek his fortune, and she was sent to live with two aunts. She also claimed to have been born a decade later than 1883 and that her mother had died when she was much younger than 11.

Personal life and early career

Aspirations for a stage career.

Having learned to sew during her six years at Aubazine, Chanel found employment as a seamstress . When not sewing, she sang in a cabaret . Chanel made her stage debut singing at a cafe-concert (a popular entertainment venue of the era) in a Moulins pavilion, La Rotonde . She was a poseuse , a performer who entertained the crowd between star turns. The money earned was what they managed to accumulate when the plate was passed.

It was at this time that Gabrielle acquired the name "Coco" when she spent her nights singing in the cabaret, often the song, "Who Has Seen Coco?" She often liked to say the nickname was given to her by her father. Others believe "Coco" came from Ko Ko Ri Ko , and Qui qu'a vu Coco .

At Moulins, Chanel met a young French ex-cavalry officer and textile heir, Étienne Balsan. For the next three years, she lived with him in his château Royallieu near Compiègne. Balsan showered Chanel with the baubles of "the rich life"—diamonds, dresses, and pearls.

Chanel had begun designing hats while living with Balsan, initially as a diversion that evolved into a commercial enterprise. She became a licensed milliner in 1910 and opened a boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris, named Chanel Modes . Chanel's millinery career bloomed once theatre actress Gabrielle Dorziat wore her hats in Fernand Nozière's play Bel Ami in 1912. Subsequently, Dorziat modelled Chanel's hats again in photographs published in Les Modes .

In 1913, Chanel opened a boutique in Deauville , financed by Arthur Capel, where she introduced deluxe casual clothing suitable for leisure and sport. The fashions were constructed from humble fabrics such as jersey and tricot , at the time primarily used for men's underwear. The location was a prime one, in the center of town on a fashionable street. Here Chanel sold hats, jackets, sweaters, and the marinière , the sailor blouse. Chanel had the dedicated support of two family members, her sister Antoinette, and her paternal aunt Adrienne, who was of a similar age. Adrienne and Antoinette were recruited to model Chanel's designs; on a daily basis the two women paraded through the town and on its boardwalks, advertising the Chanel creations.

Chanel, determined to re-create the success she enjoyed in Deauville, opened an establishment in Biarritz in 1915. After one year of operation, the business proved to be lucrative. In Biarritz Chanel met an expatriate aristocrat, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia. They maintained a close association for many years afterward. By 1919, Chanel was registered as a couturière and established her maison de couture at 31 rue Cambon, Paris.

Established couturière

In 1918, Chanel purchased the building at 31 rue Cambon, in one of the most fashionable districts of Paris. In 1921, she opened an early incarnation of a fashion boutique , featuring clothing, hats, and accessories, later expanded to offer jewellery and fragrances. By 1927, Chanel owned five properties on the rue Cambon, buildings numbered 23 to 31.

In 1931, while in Monte Carlo Chanel became acquainted with Samuel Goldwyn . She was introduced through a mutual friend, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, cousin to the last tsar of Russia, Nicolas II . Goldwyn offered Chanel a tantalizing proposition. For the sum of a million dollars (approximately US$75 million today), he would bring her to Hollywood twice a year to design costumes for his stars. Chanel accepted the offer. Accompanying her on her first trip to Hollywood was her friend, Misia Sert.

Chanel designed the clothing worn on screen by Gloria Swanson , in Tonight or Never (1931), and for Ina Claire in The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932). Both Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich became private clients.

Chanel went on to design the costumes for several French films, including Jean Renoir 's 1939 film La Règle du jeu , in which she was credited as La Maison Chanel . Chanel introduced the left-wing Renoir to Luchino Visconti , aware that the shy Italian hoped to work in film. Renoir was favorably impressed by Visconti and brought him in to work on his next film project.

In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Chanel closed her shops, maintaining her apartment situated above the couture house at 31 Rue de Cambon. She said that it was not a time for fashion.

During the German occupation, Chanel resided at the Hotel Ritz . During this time, she had a romantic relationship with Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German aristocrat and member of Dincklage noble family. He served as diplomat in Paris and was a former Prussian Army officer and attorney general who had been an operative in military intelligence since 1920, who eased her arrangements at the Ritz.

In 1945, Chanel moved to Switzerland, where she lived for several years, part of the time with Dincklage.

At more than 70 years old, after having her couture house closed for 15 years, she felt the time was right for her to re-enter the fashion world. The revival of her couture house in 1954 was fully financed by Pierre Wertheimer. Chanel came out with her comeback collection in 1954. The American and British press saw it as a "breakthrough", bringing together fashion and youth in a new way.

As 1971 began, Chanel carried out her usual routine of preparing the spring catalogue. She had gone for a long drive on the afternoon of Saturday, 9 January. Soon after, feeling ill, she went to bed early. She announced her final words to her maid which were: "You see, this is how you die."

She died on Sunday, 10 January 1971, at the Hotel Ritz, where she had resided for more than 30 years.

Her funeral was held at the Église de la Madeleine; her fashion models occupied the first seats during the ceremony and her coffin was covered with white flowers—camellias, gardenias, orchids, azaleas and a few red roses. Salvador Dalí , Serge Lifar , Jacques Chazot, Yves Saint Laurent and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild attended her funeral in the Church of the Madeleine. Her grave is in the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne , Switzerland.

Most of her estate was inherited by her nephew André Palasse, who lived in Switzerland, and his two daughters, who lived in Paris.

Although Chanel was viewed as a prominent figure of luxury fashion during her life, Chanel's influence has been examined further after her death in 1971. When Chanel died, the first lady of France, Mme Pompidou, organized a hero's tribute. Soon, damaging documents from French intelligence agencies were released that outlined Chanel's wartime involvements, quickly ending her monumental funeral plans.

Legacy as designer

Chanel's early wool jersey travelling suit consisted of a cardigan jacket and pleated skirt, paired with a low-belted pullover top. This ensemble, worn with low-heeled shoes, became the casual look in expensive women's wear.

First introduced in 1923, the Chanel tweed suit was designed for comfort and practicality. It consisted of a jacket and skirt in supple and light wool or mohair tweed, and a blouse and jacket lining in jersey or silk. Chanel did not stiffen the material or use shoulder pads, as was common in contemporary fashion. This allowed for quick and easy movement. She designed the neckline to leave the neck comfortably free and added functional pockets.

After the jersey suit, the concept of the little black dress is often cited as a Chanel contribution to the fashion lexicon, a style still worn to this day. In 1912–1913, the actress Suzanne Orlandi was one of the first women to wear a Chanel little black dress, in velvet with a white collar. In 1920, Chanel herself vowed that, while observing an audience at the opera, she would dress all women in black.

In 1929, Chanel introduced a handbag inspired by soldiers' bags. Its thin shoulder strap allowed the user to keep her hands free. Following her comeback, Chanel updated the design in February 1955, creating what would become the "2.55" (named for the date of its creation). Whilst details of the classic bag have been reworked, such as the 1980s update by Karl Lagerfeld when the clasp and lock were redesigned to incorporate the Chanel logo and leather was interlaced through the shoulder chain, the bag has retained its original basic form. In 2005, the Chanel firm released an exact replica of the original 1955 bag to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its creation.

Depictions in popular culture

• The Broadway production Coco , with music by André Previn , book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner , opened 18 December 1969 and closed 3 October 1970. It is set in 1953–1954 at the time that Chanel was reestablishing her couture house. Chanel was played by Katharine Hepburn for the first eight months, and by Danielle Darrieux for the rest of its run.
• The first film about Chanel was Chanel Solitaire (1981), directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton , and Rutger Hauer .
• Coco Chanel (2008) was a television movie starring Shirley MacLaine as the 70-year-old Chanel. Directed by Christian Duguay, the film also starred Barbora Bobuľová as the young Chanel and Olivier Sitruk as Boy Capel.
• Coco avant Chanel ( Coco Before Chanel ) (2009) was a French-language biographical film directed by Anne Fontaine, starring Audrey Tautou as the young Chanel, with Benoît Poelvoorde as Étienne Balsan and Alessandro Nivola as Boy Capel
• Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009) was a French-language film directed by Jan Kounen. Anna Mouglalis played Chanel, and Mads Mikkelsen played Igor Stravinsky . The film was based on the 2002 novel Coco and Igor by Chris Greenhalgh, which concerns a purported affair between Chanel and Stravinsky. It was chosen to close the Cannes Film Festival of 2009.
• This page was last modified on 31 August 2024, at 06:05. Suggest an edit .

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(1883–1971). French fashion designer Coco Chanel led the high-fashion world in Paris, France, for almost six decades. Her elegantly casual designs inspired women to abandon the complicated, uncomfortable clothes —such as petticoats and corsets—that were common in the 19th century. Among her now-classic innovations were the collarless suit, bell-bottomed pants, costume jewelry, and the “little black dress.”

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. After her mother died when Chanel was young, her father placed her in an orphanage. After briefly working as a shopgirl, Chanel sang for a few years in a café. In 1913 she opened a tiny millinery shop in Deauville, France. There she also sold simple sportswear, such as jersey sweaters. Within five years her designs had attracted the attention of wealthy women seeking relief from the prevalent constricting styles. Chanel’s clothes stressed simplicity and comfort and revolutionized the fashion industry. By the late 1920s the Chanel industries employed 3,500 people and included a fashion house, a textile business, perfume laboratories, and a workshop for costume jewelry.

A large part of Chanel’s empire revolved around Chanel No. 5, the perfume she introduced in 1922. The perfume, a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents, was more complex and mysterious than the single-scented perfumes then on the market. That Chanel was the first major fashion designer to introduce a perfume and that she used a simple, sleek bottle also added to the scent’s success. A partnership with the businessmen who produced and marketed her fragrance left her with only a small percentage of the royalties. Despite instigating a series of lawsuits, Chanel failed to regain control of her signature fragrance.

Chanel closed her fashion house in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II but returned in 1954. After her death on January 10, 1971, in Paris, her fashion house was led by a series of different designers. This situation stabilized in 1983, when Karl Lagerfeld became chief designer.

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Fashion empire

Chanel no. 5, world war ii.

What is Coco Chanel known for?

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Coco Chanel

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• PBS - Antiques Roadshow - Coco Chanel: Fashion Designer, Nazi Informant
• The MY HERO Project - Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel
• The Met - Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883–1971) and the House of Chanel
• Business of Fashion - Biography of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel
• National Public Radio - Coco Chanel: The Unlikely Fashion Icon
• Coco Chanel - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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When was Coco Chanel born, and when did she die?

Coco Chanel was born on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France, and she died on January 10, 1971, in Paris, at the age of 87.

Coco Chanel was a fashion designer who ruled Parisian haute couture for almost six decades. She is known for the Chanel suit, the quilted purse, costume jewelry, and the “little black dress”—all now-classic innovations. Her designs stressed simplicity and comfort, and they revolutionized the  fashion industry . Chanel also introduced the iconic perfume Chanel No. 5.

Coco Chanel began working as a seamstress in her teens, and she opened a small millinery shop in Paris about a decade later, in 1910. In 1912 she established a boutique in Deauville, France. Her practical, elegant designs attracted influential women, and Chanel was soon heading a thriving couture house. “My life didn’t please me, so I created my life,” she said.

Coco Chanel’s parents were Eugénie Jeanne Devolle Chanel, a laundrywoman, and Albert Chanel, a street vendor. The Chanels had a total of six children, and the family lived in poverty in rural France. When she was 11, she was sent to live in an orphanage in Aubazine after her mother’s death. She moved to Moulins at age 18, and she lived in a convent while attending school. She was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. The origin of her nickname “Coco” is uncertain.

Coco Chanel (born August 19, 1883, Saumur , France—died January 10, 1971, Paris) was a French fashion designer who ruled Parisian haute couture for almost six decades. Her elegantly casual designs inspired women to abandon the complicated, uncomfortable clothes—such as petticoats and corsets —that were prevalent in early 20th-century dress . Among her now-classic innovations were the Chanel suit, the quilted purse, costume jewelry , and the “ little black dress.” She also was known for the iconic perfume Chanel No. 5.

She was born Gabrielle Chanel, although her surname was misspelled (Chasnel) on her birth certificate. Her parents were Eugénie Jeanne Devolle Chanel, a laundrywoman, and Albert Chanel, who worked as a street vendor. The family—which eventually included six children—lived in poverty while moving throughout the French countryside. After her mother died in 1895, 11-year-old Gabrielle Chanel was sent to a convent-run orphanage in Aubazine. It was there that she learned to sew.

At age 18, Chanel moved to Moulins , where she attended school while living in a convent. In 1902 she struck out on her own and became a seamstress. During this time Chanel also worked as a café singer. Although not a particularly gifted singer, she was a popular performer, known for her charisma . While the origin of her nickname “Coco” is uncertain, some believe it is a reference to several songs she performed: “Ko Ko Ri Ko” (“Cock-a-doodle-doo”) and “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” (“Has anyone seen Coco?”).

“My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.”

Chanel enjoyed an active social life and had affairs with various wealthy men, notably Arthur (“Boy”) Capel, with whom she had a relationship until his death in 1919. With his financial assistance, she opened Chanel Modes, a tiny millinery shop in Paris , in 1910. Two years later she established a boutique in Deauville , France . There she later sold simple sportswear, such as jersey sweaters. At the time jersey was an inexpensive fabric commonly used in men’s undergarments. However, Chanel transformed the fluid material into practical but elegant designs, many of which were inspired by menswear.

Within five years her original use of jersey to create a “poor girl” look had attracted the attention of influential wealthy women seeking relief from the prevalent corseted styles. Faithful to her maxim that “luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury,” Chanel’s designs stressed simplicity and comfort, and they revolutionized the fashion industry .

In 1926 Chanel continued to transform fashion by introducing the so-called “little black dress” (commonly called LBD). While Chanel was not the first fashion designer to use black, the color was commonly reserved for mourning attire or more formal wear. Chanel’s black dress, however, was incredibly versatile, easily transitioning from day to evening with the right accessories—such as the costume jewelry she often wore. The LBD was hailed for both its simplicity and mass appeal. Alluding to Henry Ford ’s revolutionary Model T car, American Vogue called the little black dress the “Ford of Fashion,” and it quickly became a fashion staple.

“A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.”

While Chanel found immense success as a designer, the financial basis of her empire was Chanel No. 5. She developed the phenomenally successful perfume in 1921 with the help of Ernest Beaux, one of the most talented perfume creators in France. It has been said that the perfume got its name from the series of scents that Beaux created for Chanel to sample—she chose the fifth, a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents that was more complex and mysterious than the single-scented perfumes then on the market. Others, however, have noted that Chanel was superstitious and considered five to be her lucky number. That Chanel was the first major fashion designer to introduce a perfume and that she replaced the typical perfume packaging with a simple and sleek bottle also added to the scent’s success. The bottle’s top featured interlocking Cs, which later became the Chanel brand’s insignia.

Chanel then partnered with businessmen Théophile Bader of the Galeries Lafayette department store and the brothers Pierre and Paul Wertheimer of the Bourjois cosmetics company to distribute Chanel No. 5. The men agreed to help her produce more of her fragrance and to market it in exchange for a share of the profits. After signing a contract wherein she received only 10 percent of the royalties, Chanel enacted a series of lawsuits in the ensuing decades to regain control of her signature fragrance. Although she was never able to renegotiate the terms of her contract to increase her royalties, Chanel nonetheless made a considerable profit from the perfume.

Chanel closed her couture house in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II . At the time she was living at the Ritz Paris hotel, which became Nazi headquarters after France fell to Germany in 1940. There she began a romantic relationship with Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German diplomat and Gestapo spy.

While researchers and biographers have demonstrated that Chanel was a collaborator, there is disagreement over the extent of her involvement with Nazis. Some allege that she only socialized with Germans, turning a blind eye to their activities. Others, however, assert that she was a Nazi agent. Of particular note is a trip she took to Madrid with a German intelligence agent in 1941. It is believed that she had entered into a deal with the Nazis to secure the release of her nephew, who was a prisoner of war in a German detention camp. Although it is unknown what she did in Madrid, soon after Chanel returned to France, her nephew was freed.

The Nazis reportedly gave Chanel the codename “Westminster,” likely alluding to her earlier affair with Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd duke of Westminster.

Less uncertain is Chanel’s support of some Nazi policies. Anti-Semitic , she petitioned Nazi officials for sole control of Chanel No. 5, arguing, among other things, that the Wertheimers were Jewish, which would preclude them from owning property. However, the Wertheimers had earlier turned their shares over to a non-Jewish businessman, and Chanel’s efforts were unsuccessful.

Soon after the Nazi occupation ended in 1944, Chanel was arrested by French authorities. However, no charges were brought, and Chanel later claimed that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , a longtime friend, had intervened. She subsequently moved to Switzerland .

The Wertheimers acquired Chanel’s couture house for an undisclosed sum in 1954. The family remains the sole owners.

In the early 1950s Chanel began to contemplate a return to fashion. At the time French fashion had undergone a seismic change led by Christian Dior . He had created the widely copied New Look, a style defined by ultrafeminine, elaborate, and highly sculptured clothing. Chanel, who favored simpler and more comfortable designs, was derisive of the look, and at one point she claimed, “Dior doesn’t dress women, he upholsters them.”

In 1954 Chanel staged her first fashion show in some 15 years. Although the French press had negative reviews, the collection proved popular in the United States . That year Chanel also introduced her highly copied suit design: a collarless, braid-trimmed tweed jacket with a graceful skirt. By the end of the 1950s, she had also debuted several other iconic items, notably a quilted purse with gold chains and two-toned shoes. These creations helped Chanel reclaim her position as one of fashion’s most influential designers.

After her death in 1971, Chanel’s couture house was led by a series of designers, with Karl Lagerfeld ’s tenure (1983–2019) being the longest and most influential. Under their direction, the Chanel brand has remained one of the most influential and iconic. Coco Chanel’s shrewd understanding of women’s fashion needs, her enterprising ambition, and the romantic aspects of her life—her rise from rags to riches and her sensational love affairs—continue to inspire numerous biographical books, films, and plays. Notable examples include the 1969 Broadway musical Coco , which starred Katharine Hepburn as the legendary designer, and Coco avant Chanel (2009; Coco Before Chanel ), a biopic with Audrey Tautou in the title role.

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Coco Chanel Facts & Worksheets

Coco chanel (gabrielle bonheur chanel ) is an icon of style, one of the most famous fashion designer in the world, and the founder of the brand of clothes and perfumes chanel., search for worksheets, download the coco chanel facts & worksheets.

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Table of Contents

Coco Chanel (Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel ) is an icon of style, one of the most famous fashion designer in the world, and the founder of the brand of clothes and perfumes Chanel. The style created by Chanel personifies the whole epoch – elegance and minimalism. Chanel was an extraordinary person – she mostly disliked people and was ready to go over their heads for the sake of her success and profit.

See the fact file below for more information on the Coco Chanel or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Coco Chanel worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

• Gabrielle Chanel, the future celebrity, was born in 1883 (although she claimed she was born 10 years later) in a poor family to a market trader and a rural carpenter. When Gabrielle was born, her parents were not married, and she was their second daughter. Her name was given in honor of nurse Gabrielle, who helped the baby to be born.
• Gabrielle’s mother, Jeanne Devol, died when the girl was only eleven years old. Chanel was raised in an orphanage and was taught to sew.

FIRST STEPS TO SUCCESS

• Gabrielle loved to sing and even performed in a cabaret. At that time, she received the nickname Coco, because her favorite songs were “Ko Ko Ri Ko” and “Qui qua vu Coco”. In one of these cabarets, she met a rich retired officer, Etienne Balsan, who soon proposed that she move to his castle in Paris.
• Remembering her sewing lessons, she realized that she wanted to become a fashion designer (making women’s hats, dresses, and underwear), and with the help of a young English entrepreneur, Arthur Capel, in 1910 was able to open her own hat shop in Paris – it is still located opposite the Ritz Hotel on Cambon Street, 31.
• The fashion for a tanned skin happened because of Coco Chanel. It happened by accident – in 1923, Gabrielle tanned during a cruise and appeared in Cannes. The society, at that time was attentive to the appearance of the woman, and immediately followed the example of Chanel.
• Chanel created a line of jewelry that was a conceptual innovation, as her designs and materials incorporated both costume jewelry and fine gemstones. This was revolutionary in an era when jewelry was strictly categorized into either fine or costume jewelry.
• Coco Chanel made popular little black dresses which women could wear all day long, complementing them with various accessories. She proved that black can be elegant and Chanel started making little black dresses in wool for the day and in satin for the evening.
• The merit of Coco Chanel is the creation of unique handbags. “I’m tired of wearing reticulums in my hands, and besides, I’ve always lost them,” said Gabrielle in 1954. A year later, she presented a small rectangular handbag on a long chain. As a result, women were able to carry a bag, conveniently hanging on the shoulder.
• The famous perfume “Chanel number 5” appeared in 1921. Its creator was a Russian emigrant perfumer Ernest Bo. The uniqueness of these perfumes is that, before Chanel, women’s perfumes did not have complex odors. Coco was an innovator and offered women the first synthesized perfume. It has been said that the perfume got its name from the series of scents that Beaux created for Chanel to sample—she chose the fifth, a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents that was more complex and mysterious than the single-scented perfumes then on the market.
• By 50, Chanel was rich and famous. The collections she created at that time stand out for their free spirit and fantasy. When the Second World War began, Chanel closed all salons because people did not care about fashion at that time.

DEATH AND LATER LIFE

• In September 1944, at the initiative of the Committee on Public Morals, she was arrested because of her connection with German officer Hans Günther von Dunklägl. Soon she was released with the help of Churchill but with the condition that she will leave France. Chanel went to Switzerland and lived there for almost ten years.
• However, in 1953, Coco Chanel decided to re-open her salon in Paris. At that time Chanel was already 70 years old. On February 5, 1954, the Chanel House was inaugurated. Critics were merciless and smashed her new collection. However, Chanel was deaf to criticism – it took her only three years to return to the height of glory.
• Chanel was never married and had no known children, but she looked after her elder sister’s son, André Palasse, following her sister’s suicide.
• On January 10, 1971, Coco Chanel died at the Ritz Hotel at the age of 87 from a heart attack. She was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland . Five lions are carved on the top of her gravestone.
• After her death in, Chanel’s couture house was led by a series of different designers. This situation stabilized in 1983 when Karl Lagerfeld became chief designer.

HERE IS A LIST OF COCO’S BEST QUOTES

• “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”
• “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”
• “Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve.”
• “The best things in life are free. The second-best are very expensive.”
• “A woman with good shoes is never ugly.”
• “Fashion changes, but style endures.”
• “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”
• “Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.”
• “Dress like you are going to meet your worst enemy today.”
• “A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.”
• “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”

Coco Chanel Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Coco Chanel across 20 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Coco Chanel worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Coco Chanel (Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel ) who is an icon of style, one of the most famous fashion designer in the world, and the founder of the brand of clothes and perfumes Chanel. The style created by Chanel personifies the whole epoch – elegance and minimalism. Chanel was an extraordinary person – she mostly disliked people and was ready to go over their heads for the sake of her success and profit.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

• Coco Chanel Facts
• French fashion designer
• Famous quotes
• Fashion Pioneer
• Who Was Coco Chanel?
• Global Brands
• The design skills
• Inspired by Coco Chanel
• Chanel’s secrets
• Magnificent Coco

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Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) [1] was a French fashion designer . She was a founder of the House of Chanel . She was the only fashion designer to be named on TIME Magazine 's 100 most influential people of the 20th century. [2] She broke free of conventions and became a role model for some. Her behaviour during the German occupation of France in World War II led to criticism. [3]

• 1 Biography
• 2 First shops
• 3 Personal life
• 7 Coco Chanel Media
• 8 References

Chanel was born in 1883 in Saumur , France. In her youth, she was a seamstress and a nightclub singer. [4] Her stage name was Coco, so she used that name publicly. [5]

In 1910, she opened a hat shop. In 1919, she opened a house of fashion in Paris, and introduced her perfume, Chanel No. 5, in 1921. She retired in 1939, but returned to fashion with great success in 1954. [6]

She is famous for the little black dress , Chanel No. 5, the most famous women's perfume in the world, and the knee-long skirt and box jacket suit worn with pearl necklace .

First shops

In 1913, Chanel opened her first shop in Deauville , France . Society women liked her simple wardrobe. In 1915, she opened a second shop in Biarritz .

Chanel became one of the first women fashion designers to create simple and practical clothes for the sporty women of the era. She took the color black, which was not used in fashion at the time and showed "chic" it could be by wearing it. The material jersey was usually used to make men's underwear, but Chanel started to work with it to make women's fashion. [1] Archived 2009-11-27 at the Wayback Machine Short hair, tans, and casual styles were the new trends. [7] She banned corsets and other uncomfortable garments. [8]

Personal life

Chanel was the mistress of several rich men. During her relationship with the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia in 1920, she added a Russian touch to her dresses by embroidering Russian patterns on them. [7]

Chanel was with Hugh Grosvenor, from 1924 to 1931. During this time, she discovered the English tweed sweater, English men's suits, and English coats. She added these to her collections. [7]

Chanel lived at the Hotel Ritz in Paris for over thirty years. During World War II , the Nazis occupied Paris, and her shops were closed. She had an affair with a Nazi officer, and was accused of being a collaborator. [4] She moved to Switzerland , and gave up fashion.

After a 15-year gap, Chanel returned to fashion in 1954. She was shocked to see the new fashion trends, especially those by Christian Dior . She understood better than anyone the requirements and needs of an active woman’s lifestyle. Her 'comeback' collection was in 1954. [9]

Her life was depicted in the Broadway musical Coco in 1969. Movies based on her life include: Chanel Solitaire (1981), Coco Chanel (2008), Coco before Coco (2009), and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009). Chanel also liked drinking cocoa during interviews. She always said she felt better after a few sips.

Chanel died in 1971. She is still influencing women’s lifestyles and clothing. The House of Chanel remains in business. It is a member of the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture , the top fashion clique in Paris. The House of Chanel produces modern versions of her best ideas. [9]

Coco Chanel Media

Caricature of Chanel and Arthur "Boy" Capel by Sem , 1913

Chanel and Winston Churchill in 1921

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov in exile in the 1920s

SS-Oberführer Walter Schellenberg , Chief of SS intelligence, the Sicherheitsdienst

Chanel wearing a sailor's jersey and trousers, 1928

Three jersey outfits by Chanel, March 1917

Chanel suit and silk blouse with two-tone pumps, 1965

• ↑ Horton, Ros; Simmons, Sally (2007). Women Who Changed the World . Quercus. p. 103. ISBN   978-1-84724-026-2 .
• ↑ Vaughan, Hal 2011. Sleeping with the enemy: Coco Chanel's secret war . New York: Knopf. ISBN   978-0-307-59263-7
• ↑ 4.0 4.1 Charles-Roux, Edmonde. 1975. Chanel: her life, her world, and the woman behind the legend she herself created . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, distributed by Random House. ISBN   0-394-47613-1 ,
• ↑ "Coco Chanel" . Biography . Retrieved 2018-03-13 .
• ↑ Jean Druesedow. 2012. The World Book Encyclopeida. Volume 3.
• ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Coco Chanel bio.com
• ↑ Coco Chanel biography , Bio true story, p.1
• ↑ 9.0 9.1 Picardie, Justine 2011. Coco Chanel: the legend and the life . HarperCollins, 'The Comeback', p269 et seq.

Coco Chanel

With her trademark suits and little black dresses, fashion designer Coco Chanel created timeless designs that are still popular today.

(1883-1971)

Who Was Coco Chanel?

Fashion designer Coco Chanel is famous for her timeless designs, trademark suits and little black dresses. In the 1920s, she launched her first perfume and eventually introduced the Chanel suit and the little black dress, with an emphasis on making clothes that were more comfortable for women. She herself became a much revered style icon known for her simple yet sophisticated outfits paired with great accessories, such as several strands of pearls.

Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. Her early years were anything but glamorous. At age 12, after her mother’s death, Chanel was put in an orphanage by her father, who worked as a peddler.

Chanel was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew — a skill that would lead to her life’s work. Her nickname came from another occupation entirely. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called “Coco.”

Some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing, and Chanel herself said that it was a “shortened version of cocotte, the French word for 'kept woman,'” according to an article in The Atlantic .

Beginnings of a Fashion Empire

Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan, who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him for one of his wealthier friends, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel’s first fashion venture.

Opening her first shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon in 1910, Chanel started out selling hats. She later added stores in Deauville and Biarritz and began making clothes.

Her first taste of clothing success came from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey on a chilly day. In response to the many people who asked about where she got the dress, she offered to make one for them. “My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville,” she once told author Paul Morand.

Chanel became a popular figure in Parisian literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée , and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends.

First Perfume

In the 1920s, Chanel took her thriving business to new heights. She launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, which was the first to feature a designer’s name. Perfume “is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure,” Chanel once explained.

The fragrance was in fact also backed by department store owner Théophile Bader and businessmen Pierre and Paul Wertheimer, with Chanel developing a close friendship with Pierre.

A deal was ultimately negotiated where the Wertheimer business would take in 70 percent of Chanel No. 5 profits for producing the perfume at their factories, with Bader receiving 20 percent and Chanel herself only receiving 10 percent. Over the years, with No. 5 being a massive source of revenue, she repeatedly sued to have the terms of the deal renegotiated.

Iconic Designs: Chanel Suit & Little Black Dress

In 1925, Chanel introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time—borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say goodbye to the days of corsets and other confining garments.

Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for evening wear.

Closing Down Shop

The international economic depression of the 1930s had a negative impact on Chanel's company, but it was the outbreak of World War II that led her to close her business. She fired her workers and shut down her shops.

After the war, Chanel left Paris, spending some years in Switzerland in a sort of exile. She also lived at her country house in Roquebrune for a time.

Return to Fashion

At the age of 70, in the early 1950s, Chanel made a triumphant return to the fashion world. She first received scathing reviews from critics, but her feminine and easy-fitting designs soon won over shoppers around the world.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S COCO CHANEL FACT CARD

Relationships and a Marriage Proposal

Beginning in 1920, Chanel had a short-lived relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky . Chanel had attended the notorious world premiere of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” in 1913.

Around 1923, she met the wealthy Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, aboard his yacht. The two started a decades-long relationship. In response to his marriage proposal, which she turned down, she reportedly said, “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!”

Life as Nazi Agent

During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a Nazi military officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, which also operated as German military headquarters.

After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel’s behalf.

While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country.

READ MORE: Coco Chanel's Secret Life as a Nazi Agent

Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. She never married, having once said “I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.” Hundreds crowded together at the Church of the Madeleine to bid farewell to the fashion icon. In tribute, many of the mourners wore Chanel suits.

A little more than a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins at her company to continue the Chanel legacy. Today her namesake company is held privately by the Wertheimer family and continues to thrive, believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.

Movies, Books and Plays on Chanel

In 1969, Chanel’s fascinating life story became the basis for the Broadway musical Coco , starring Katharine Hepburn as the legendary designer. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics for the show’s song while Andre Prévin composed the music. Cecil Beaton handled the set and costume design for the production. The show received seven Tony Award nominations, and Beaton won for Best Costume Design and René Auberjonois for Best Featured Actor.

Several biographies of the fashion revolutionary have also been written, including Chanel and Her World (2005), written by Chanel's friend Edmonde Charles-Roux.

In the 2008 television movie Coco Chanel , Shirley MacLaine starred as the famous designer around the time of her 1954 career resurrection. The actress told WWD that she had long been interested in playing Chanel. “What’s wonderful about her is she’s not a straightforward, easy woman to understand.”

In the 2008 film Coco Before Chanel, French actress Audrey Tautou played Chanel in her early years, from childhood to the founding of her fashion house. In 2009, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky detailed Chanel's relationship with the composer.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1883
• Birth date: August 19, 1883
• Birth City: Saumur
• Birth Country: France
• Gender: Female
• Best Known For: With her trademark suits and little black dresses, fashion designer Coco Chanel created timeless designs that are still popular today.
• Astrological Sign: Leo
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1971
• Death date: January 10, 1971
• Death City: Paris
• Death Country: France

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Coco Chanel Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/history-culture/coco-chanel
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: December 10, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• A woman has the age she deserves.
• Nature gives you the face you have at 20; it is up to you to merit the face you have at 50.
• [L]uxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.
• My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville.
• I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.
• What’s wonderful about her is she’s not a straightforward, easy woman to understand.
• Look at how ridiculous these women are, wearing clothes by a man who doesn’t know women, never had one, and dreams of being one!” (about Christian Dior's clothing)
• How could a brain function normally under all that?” (about ornate, heavy hats)
• Fashion is made to become unfashionable.
• Fashion is like a revolution—it only enters our lives after it has gone down in the streets.
• I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.
• I've always fled from boredom.
• Youth is something very new: Twenty years ago no one mentioned it.

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Coco Chanel Biography for Kids

Written by Female Designers,

May 04, 2021.

Date : August 19, 1883 - January 10, 1971 (87 years old)

Who Was Coco Chanel?

Coco Chanel was a French designer and a businesswoman who ruled the Parisian haute couture for about sixty years.

She is known for the classic innovations, including the quilted purse, the woman’s suit, the “little black dress,” and costume jewelry. She was nicknamed “Coco” during her years as a singer.

Facts About Coco Chanel

• Coco learned how to sew at an orphanage
• The nickname, Coco, came from her brief years as a singer
• She was a licensed milliner
• Coco Chanel designed herself the famous Chanel logo
• She battled court cases for decades because of her perfume
• She was allegedly an agent of Nazi
• Coco Chanel was a friend of Winston Churchill
• She was never married, although she was involved in many affairs
• She used to sing before sewing
• She lied about her age.

Inspirational Quotes from Coco Chanel

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”

“Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.”

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

Coco Chanel Biography

Coco Chanel was born Gabrielle Coco Chanel in Saumur, France, on August 19, 1883. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and died when she was only around 12 years old. Her early life was marked by poverty.

After the death of her mother, Coco Chanel’s father abandoned her together with her siblings. They were forced to go to an orphanage where they grew at. Coco stayed for six years at a Roman Catholic orphanage. The nuns at the orphanage taught her how to sew.

At the age of 18, Coco left the convent. She moved to Moulins. She was employed as a seamstress and later had her singing career at cabaret events. She did not manage to keep a stage career as her singing was not good enough.

In 1908, she was involved in an affair with Etienne Balsan, who was a wealthy aristocrat. This allowed her to associate with several wealthy aristocrats.

In 1913, Chanel Coco, with financial aid from Arthur Capel, her lover, opened a boutique in Deauville that sold fashionable clothes.

She made innovative use of the jersey fabric, which was a manufactured cloth. The jersey fabric was more useful during the First World War. This made her gain her reputation for being a fashion icon.

Her initial success in the business propelled her to start another boutique in Biarritz. The boutique later became a shopping point for wealthy individuals during the First World War. By 1919, Chanel Coco had established a boutique at the center of the most fashionable place in Paris.

After the world war, Coco Chanel needed to revolutionize women’s clothes. To achieve this, she started by liberating women from corset bondage. She encouraged a casual and elegant range of clothes for women.

She pioneered significant items of clothing such as:

• The collarless cardigan jacket
• The floating evening scarf
• The bias cut dress was termed as a Ford because almost everyone had it
• The shoestring shoulder strap
• The wearing of real jewels alongside junk

Coco Chanel retired from fashion in 1938. However, she made a comeback 16 years later. This was after she felt that men were dominating French fashion. Critics did not receive her post-war collection well.

However, it proved popular with the public. She pulled back the rich and famous women in France who adopted and enjoyed the Chanel look. She had a long-lasting influence on the fashion industry for years.

Coco prided herself on her fashion, great taste, and practicality combined with an awareness of the people’s needs. This made her one of the most known individuals at the time in world fashion.

She was also an innovator in the fashion aspects, developing new and unique kinds of jewelry that imitated expensive jewelry. This allowed wealthy individuals to keep their jewelry at home.

Coco Chanel During the Second World War

Coco Chanel closed her shops when the Second World War began in 1939. She stated that war was not a time for fashion. This made more than three thousand of her employees lose their jobs. It was termed as retaliation after her workers had sought better working conditions and better wages earlier.

She was involved in a romantic relationship with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German officer when Germany occupied Paris. This relationship allowed her to get a luxury apartment in Ritz during the Second World War.

Her wartime record has been widely criticized because of her sympathy for Germany’s cause and her political beliefs that expressed anti-Semitism. Hal Vaughan, a biographer, discovered detailed documents that indicated that Chanel Coco worked for General Walter Schellenberg, chief of the SS Intelligence.

General Walter Schellenberg was later convicted of war crimes at the end of the war and imprisoned for six years. Chanel Coco paid for his medication upon his release. It was also rumored that she was to be used as a courier by the SS in 1943 to make a peace deal with Winston Churchill and the allies. However, this plan did not succeed.

Later Life and Death

Following a series of post-war interrogations, she moved to Switzerland, where she lived until 1954. Male designers such as Christian Dior emerged and began to eclipse the Chanel Coco brand.

She returned to Paris in 1954 and later reopened her couture house. Her label was a success in Britain and America but less so in France.

She was never married and had no children. Many biographies have termed her as an enigma. She died at the Hotel Ritz on January 10, 1971, at the age of 87 years.

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Coco Chanel

Subject: French

Age range: 11-14

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

Last updated

24 January 2021

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Gabrielle “coco” chanel (1883–1971) and the house of chanel.

• House of Chanel

Evening dress

Attributed to House of Chanel

Evening ensemble

Cocktail ensemble

Jessa Krick The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004

Early Success Among the key designers who made a bold and lasting impression on women’s fashion in the twentieth century, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883–1971) deserves special recognition. Born in Saumur, in the Loire Valley of France, Chanel survived an impoverished childhood and strict convent education. The difficulties of her early life inspired her to pursue a radically different lifestyle, first on the stage, where she acquired the nickname “Coco,” and then as a milliner.

With the help of one of the male admirers who would provide key financial assistance and social connections over the course of her career, Chanel opened her first shop in Paris in 1913, followed by another in the resort town of Deauville. Selling hats and a limited line of garments, Chanel’s shops developed a dedicated clientele who quickly made her practical sportswear a great success. Much of Chanel’s clothing was made of jersey, a choice of fabric both unusual and inspired. Until the designer began to work with it, jersey was more commonly used for men’s underwear. With her financial situation precarious in the early years of her design career, Chanel purchased jersey primarily for its low cost. The qualities of the fabric, however, ensured that the designer would continue to use it long after her business became profitable. The fabric draped well and suited Chanel’s designs, which were simple, practical, and often inspired by menswear, especially the uniforms prevalent when World War I broke out in 1914.

As her fashion-conscious customers fled Paris at the beginning of the war, Chanel’s boutiques in Deauville and Biarritz flourished. Chanel’s uncluttered styles, with their boxy lines and shortened skirts, allowed women to leave their corsets behind and freed them for the practical activities made necessary by the war. Elements of these early designs became hallmarks of the Chanel look ( 1975.7 ; 1984.28a–c ; 1976.29.7 ) Chanel took great pride as a woman in designing for other women, and by 1919, at the age of thirty-two, she enjoyed huge success, with clients around the world. Soon after, she relocated her couture house in Paris to 31 rue Cambon, which remains the center of operations for the House of Chanel today.

A Style Icon Chanel’s own lifestyle fueled her ideas of how modern women everywhere should look, act, and dress. Her own slim boyish figure and cropped hair became an ideal, as did her tanned skin, active lifestyle, and financial independence. Throughout her career, Chanel succeeded in packaging and marketing her own personal attitudes and style, making her a key arbiter of women’s taste throughout the twentieth century.

The designer’s passionate interests inspired her fashions. Her apartment and her clothing followed her favorite color palette, shades of beige, black, and white ( 1978.165.16a,b ; 1984.30 ). Elements from her art collection and theatrical interests likewise provided themes for her collections ( C.I.65.47.2a,b ). When Chanel attended a masquerade ball dressed as a figure from a Watteau painting , she later reworked the costume into a woman’s suit ( C.I.54.16.1a,b ). She hired Russian émigrés from her circle of friends to work in her embroidery workshop, creating designs to her exacting specifications. Known for a relentless drive for perfection, whether in design or fit, and strong opinions in all matters of taste, Chanel backed her clothing with the authority of her personal conviction.

Chanel continued to create successful looks for women through the 1920s and ’30s. In 1926, American Vogue likened Chanel’s “little black dress” to the Ford, alluding to its almost universal popularity as a fashion basic. In fact, the concept of the dress suitable for day and evening did become both a staple for Chanel throughout subsequent seasons and a classic piece of twentieth-century womenswear ( 1984.28a–c ). The designer also used colorful feminine printed chiffons in her daywear designs ( 1984.31a-c ). Evening ensembles followed the long slim line for which the designer was known, but also incorporated tulle, lace, and decorative elements that soften and romanticize the overall look of the garment ( 1978.165.16a,b ; C.I.46.4.7a-c ).

The Closure and the Comeback Despite her great success, Chanel closed the doors of her salon in 1939, when France declared war on Germany. Other couturiers left the country, but Chanel endured the war in Paris, her future uncertain. Following the end of the hostilities and resolution of some personal difficulties, Chanel found she could not idly stand by and observe the early success of Christian Dior , whose “New Look” prevailed in the postwar period. While many admired Dior’s celebration of femininity, with full skirts and nipped-in waists, Chanel felt his designs were neither modern nor suitable for the liberated women who had survived another war by taking on active roles in society. Just as she had following World War I, Chanel set out to rescue and reinvigorate women’s fashion.

The designer faced challenges in this endeavor: securing finances, assembling a new staff, seeking out new fabrics, competing at age seventy against a new generation of designers. Chanel’s comeback collection of couture debuted in 1953 (1976.370.2a-c). Although it was not a critical success, the designer persevered. Within three seasons, Chanel was enjoying newfound respect. She updated her classic looks, reworking the classic tweed designs until wealthy women and celebrities returned to the showroom in droves. The Chanel suit became a status symbol for a new generation, made of solid or tweed fabric, with its slim skirt and collarless jacket trimmed in braid, gold buttons, patch pockets, and—sewn into the hem—a gold-colored chain ensuring it hung properly from the shoulders. Chanel also reintroduced her handbags, jewelry, and shoes with great success in subsequent seasons.

The Legacy Continues Following Chanel’s death in 1971, several of her assistants designed the couture and ready-to-wear lines until Karl Lagerfeld (born 1938) took over the haute couture design in 1983 and ready-to-wear in 1984. Lagerfeld, like Chanel at the time of her comeback, looked to past designs for the secret to his success. His designs incorporated signature Chanel details, tweed fabrics, colors, gold chains, quilt-stitched leather, and the linked “CC” logo. In later collections, Lagerfeld became more irreverent, deconstructing some of the ladylike polish of Chanel’s 1960s looks. Playing with the fact that Chanel’s favorite jersey fabric had been used for men’s underwear at the turn of the twentieth century, Lagerfeld even incorporated men’s T-shirts and briefs into his designs ( 1993.104.2a–j ). Nonetheless, Lagerfeld’s ability to continuously mine the Chanel archive for inspiration testifies to the importance of Gabrielle Chanel’s contributions to women’s fashion in the twentieth century.

Krick, Jessa. “Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883–1971) and the House of Chanel.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chnl/hd_chnl.htm (October 2004)

Additional Essays by Jessa Krick

• Krick, Jessa. “ Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895) and the House of Worth .” (October 2004)
• Krick, Jessa. “ Shoes in The Costume Institute .” (October 2004)

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Artist or Maker

• Chanel, Gabrielle "Coco"
• Dior, Christian
• Lagerfeld, Karl
• Watteau, Antoine

Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel Biography

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (August 18, 1883 – January 10, 1971) Born in Saumur, France. French designer considered one of the most representative and influential figures in the fashion world of the twentieth century. The promoter of the garçonne-style renovator and vindicator, Coco Chanel became known as a designer in the 1910s, after buying and renovating a line of hats that she sold with the support of her lover Étienne Balsan. Upon gaining the recognition he opened numerous stores and began producing everything from shoes, suits, and dresses to perfumes and accessories. One of the greatest contributions that this revolutionary designer left was the liberation of the woman from the rigid and stoned wardrobe of the belle époque, thus reflecting the struggle for equality and women’s rights initiated by the women of the time.

Family and beginnings

Born into a humble family, Chanel had as parents the farmer Eugénie Jeanne Devolle and the seller Albert Chanel. Her childhood was marked by poverty, the alcoholism of her father and the illness of her mother, who left six orphaned children when she died in 1895. After the death of her mother, her father tried to leave the children to the care of their grandparents, but they refused, so he accommodated the three boys in farmers’ homes and the girls sent them to an orphanage. At twelve, Chanel was left in the care of the nuns of the monastery of Aubazine (Corrèze), where she was strictly educated, learning to sew, embroider and iron.

During the six years that she remained in the monastery, Chanel was trained as a seamstress and began to create a fictional story about her birth and her family, which she hated after abandonment; She spent most of her life denying them and hiding any record that existed about them, as her past embarrassed her. Anxious to start a new life, she left the orphanage and began working as a saleswoman in a sewing shop and singer in La Rotonde, an entertainment place for army men, where she performed songs such as Ko ko ri ko and Qui qu’a vu Coconut?. It was in this place that she started being called Coco , a name she would use later to make herself known as a designer.

At age 22 she fell madly in love with Étienne Balsan, a wealthy young man who ripped her out of provincial life and introduced her to the world of the upper class, parties, and leisure, however, Chanel wanted to work, so he spoke with Balsan to finance the opening of her first business, a millinery. Well, by then she had started selling her first hats to wealthy ladies and ladies on the ground floor of Balsan’s apartment, making himself known for her talent and particular informal and elegant style. In 1910, while Balsan was thinking about the project, Chanel ran away with Arthur Boy Capel, a polo player friend of Balsan, with whom she lived in Paris for a while. That same year she opened her first store in Paris, Chanel Modes , which was supported by Balsan and Capel.

The start of a dream

After opening her first store in Paris, Chanel began to gain recognition as a designer, reforming hats she bought at the Galeries Lafayette. Given the success achieved with the hats, Chanel decided to expand her business by designing her fashion line, which was well-received by her clients, who were mostly known from Balsan. In a short time, the fashion house attracted the attention of women of the time with its informal, elegant and revolutionary fashion, away from the bell-shaped and saturated style of the belle époque. The success of her designs led her to open more branches and hire more than 4000 workers, with whom she managed one of the biggest changes in the fashion world. With her stores on rue Cambo, Deauville, and Biarritz, Chanel imposed a new fashion style, between feminine and chic, which completely changed the way women of the time dressed, reflecting to some extent the change in the times and the struggle initiated by female activists in search of equal rights.

Being a model of her designs, Chanel became the image of the young and successful woman of the time: thin, stylized, with short hair, androgynous figure, and garçonne style. While her business was growing, Chanel was going through difficult moments in the love field, as she was abandoned by Capel, who married an aristocrat in 1919. At the end of World War I, Chanel settled in Hotel Ritz and focused entirely on her business, which prospered rapidly thanks to the dissemination of her designs and style in fashion magazines and newspapers around the world. The recognition she had gained allowed her to innovate and create new styles for the modern, elegant and free woman such as short skirts, female pants, Scottish tweed costume jewelry, round toe shoes a, the beach pajamas and her iconic bag with golden chains.

In 1929, the Wall Street crack forced Chanel to reduce the number of workers and the cost of their designs, however, this did not save the signature of the closure. Overwhelmed by loss, she moved to North America, where she began working designing clothes for big movie stars with the support of producer Samuel Goldwyn. After reopening the fashion house with the support of her new lover Duke Pierre Wertheimer and revolutionizing the world of perfumes with Parfums Chanel, the designer had to face the closing again due to the outbreak of World War II. She subsequently went into exile in Switzerland and stayed away from the world of fashion while attending the creation of the new Dior and Balenciaga look. She reopened her home in 1954, seventy-one years old and continued working on her designs even when her rheumatism and arthritis beset her. This prominent French designer died on January 10, 1971, in her bed at the Hotel Ritz, Paris.

Her funeral was attended by important figures such as designers Paco Rabanne, Balenciaga, and Yves Saint Laurent and the painter Salvador Dalí , among others. Three years after her death, Alain Wertheimer took command of the brand, skillfully leading the company and greatly promoting the sale of Chanel Number 5 and its different editions. Currently, the Wertheimer family are the owners of the company, which they have managed to keep up thanks to the work of great designers and the renewal of Coco Chanel’s style. Among the designers that marked the history of the company is Karl Lagerfeld, who was responsible for recovering the brightness and importance of the brand.

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Fernando Botero Biography

Fernando Botero Angulo (April 19, 1932 – September 15, 2023) was a sculptor, painter, muralist, and draftsman, hailing from Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia. He was a Colombian artist known and celebrated for infusing a substantial volume to human and animal figures in his works.

Early Years and Beginnings

Fernando Botero was born into an affluent Paisa family , composed of his parents, David Botero and Flora Angulo, along with his older brother Juan David, who was four years his senior, and his younger brother, Rodrigo, who would be born four years after Fernando, in the same year that their father passed away. In 1938, he enrolled in primary school at the Ateneo Antioqueño and later entered the Bolivariana to continue his high school education. However, he was expelled from the institution due to an article he published in the newspaper El Colombiano about Picasso , as well as his drawings that were considered obscene. As a result, he graduated from high school at the Liceo of the University of Antioquia in 1950.

In parallel to his studies, Fernando attended a bullfighting school in La Macarena at the request of one of his uncles. However, due to an issue related to bullfighting, Botero left the bullring and embarked on a journey into painting. In 1948, he held his first exhibition in Medellín. Two years later, he traveled to Bogotá where he had two more exhibitions and had the opportunity to meet some intellectuals of the time. He then stayed at Isolina García’s boarding house in Tolú, which he paid for by painting a mural. Once again in Bogotá, he won the second prize at the IX National Artists Salon with his oil painting “Facing the Sea” .

“Ephemeral art is a lesser form of expression that cannot be compared to the concept of art conceived with the desire for perpetuity. What many people fail to understand is that Picasso is a traditional artist”- Fernando Botero

Due to the prize from the IX Salon and the sale of several of his works, Fernando Botero traveled to Spain in 1952 to enroll at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. There, he lived by selling drawings and paintings in the vicinity of the Prado Museum. In 1953, he went to Paris with filmmaker Ricardo Irrigarri, and later, they both traveled to Florence. Here, he entered the Academy of San Marco, where he was heavily influenced by Renaissance painters such as Piero della Francesca, Titian, and Paolo Uccello.

Career and Personal Life

In 1955, Botero returned to Colombia to hold an exhibition featuring several of his works created during his time in Europe, but it was met with a lukewarm reception from the public.

Woman With a Mirror / Foto:Luis García (Zaqarbal) / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Spain (CC BY-SA 3.0 ES)

In 1956, he married Gloria Zea, with whom he would later have three children: Fernando, Juan Carlos, and Lina. The couple traveled to Mexico City, where Fernando Botero was eager to see the works of Mexican muralists, but this experience left him disillusioned. Consequently, he began searching for his own artistic style, drawing influence from both the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo and the Colombian artist Alejandro Obregón . In this quest, he started experimenting with volume, initially in still lifes, and gradually extending this approach to other elements.

In 1957, he successfully exhibited in New York, showcasing his new artistic sensibility. The following year, he returned to Bogotá, where he was appointed as a professor at the School of Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia . He presented his work “La Camera Degli Sposi” at the X Colombian Artists Salon , winning the first prize and becoming the country’s most prominent painter. This piece sparked some controversy as it was initially censored for being almost a parody of Andrea Mantegna’s “La Cámara de los Esposos”. However, it was later reinstated in the exhibition on the advice of Marta Traba. Subsequently, Fernando Botero exhibited his works in various spaces in the United States, where a businessman from Chicago purchased “La Camera Degli Sposi” .

“Fernando Botero and his works are the finest ambassadors of our country in this land of navigators and discoverers, of poets and fado singers”- Juan Manuel Santos

In 1960, Botero separated from Gloria Zea and traveled to New York. He led a modest life here as the New York art scene was primarily inclined towards abstract expressionism. Consequently, Botero was influenced by artists like Pollock, which led him to experiment with color, brushwork, and format, to the point of nearly abandoning his distinctive style characterized by the manipulation of volume. Aware of this, Botero returned to his usual style of flat colors and figurative representations.

Starting in 1962, he began a series of exhibitions in both Europe and the United States, as well as in Colombia. By 1970, the year his son Pedro was born to his second wife, Cecilia Zambrano, Fernando Botero had already become the world’s most sought-after sculptor. However, in 1974, his son Pedro tragically died in a traffic accident, leading to his second divorce and leaving significant marks on his artistic endeavors.

In 1978, the Colombian painter married Sophia Vari , a renowned Greek artist with whom he shared a significant part of his life, until sadly, she passed away in May 2023.

Since 1983, Fernando Botero has been exhibiting his works and donating them to various cities around the world. As a result, we can find his pieces in the streets of Medellín, Barcelona, Oviedo, Singapore, and Madrid, among others. In 2008, the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Mexico conferred upon him an honorary Doctorate.

Renowned Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, died on September 15, 2023 , in Monaco at the age of 91 due to pneumonia . His artistic legacy will endure forever. In his hometown, seven days of mourning were declared.

Pedrito a Caballo, Fernando Botero (1975).

Top 10 Famous works by Fernando Botero

Some of the most recognized works by Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero:

• “Pedrito on Horseback” / “Pedrito a Caballo” (1974): This is an oil painting on canvas measuring 194.5 cm x 150.5 cm. For Botero, this work is his masterpiece and a refuge during a personal tragedy. The child depicted is Pedro, his son from his second marriage, who tragically passed away in an accident when he was young.
• “Mona Lisa at 12 Years Old” / “Mona lisa a los 12 años” (1978): This piece stands out as a unique version of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, the Mona Lisa . Painted in oil on canvas and measuring 183 cm x 166 cm, Botero incorporates his characteristic style of voluptuous and rounded figures into this work, which has become one of his most distinctive pieces.
• “Woman’s Torso” / “Torso de Mujer” (1986): It is a majestic bronze sculpture that rises to an impressive height of approximately 2.48 meters. It is often affectionately referred to as “La Gorda” (“The Fat One”). This artwork finds its home in Parque de Berrío, located in the captivating city of Medellín.
• “Woman with Mirror” / “Mujer con Espejo” (1987): An imposing bronze sculpture weighing 1000 kg. It is located in Plaza de Colón, in the heart of Madrid, Spain. The artwork captivates the gaze with the portrayal of a woman peacefully lying face down on the ground, holding a mirror in her hands. Her expression reflects deep introspection and enigmatic melancholy.
• “The Orchestra” / “La Orquesta” (1991): In this oil on canvas artwork, measuring 200 cm x 172 cm, Botero presents a band of musicians with a singer, all immersed in a spirit of celebration. The artist aims to convey a sense of harmony and joy through his portrayal.
• “Woman Smoking” / “Mujer Fumando” (1994): It is a creation executed in watercolor, spanning dimensions of 122 cm x 99 cm. In this work, Maestro Botero skillfully captures the essence of a woman elegantly holding a cigarette between her fingers. His meticulous focus on voluptuous forms, posture, and the serene expression of the figure masterfully combine to emphasize the sensuality and profound intimacy of the moment captured in the artwork.
• “Man on Horseback” / “Hombre a Caballo” (1996): This bronze sculpture is one of the most iconic works in the artist’s career. It depicts a rider in a majestic and proud posture. Over the years, this imposing work has been exhibited in multiple cities around the world, solidifying its place as a prominent piece in the sculptor’s body of work.
• “The Horse” / “El Caballo” (1997): This iconic sculpture showcases a horse of majestic presence and a distinctive rounded form, sculpted in bronze and measuring approximately 3 meters in height. This masterpiece reflects Botero’s profound passion for horses while also serving as a powerful representation of the mythical Trojan Horse.
• “The Death of Pablo Escobar” / “La muerte de Pablo Escobar” (1999): This artwork, created using the oil on canvas technique, has dimensions of 58 cm x 38 cm. While not considered a masterpiece, this artistic piece represents one of the most significant moments in Colombia’s history. Fernando Botero captures, in his distinctive style, the moment of the death of the drug lord Pablo Escobar , addressing issues related to violence and criminality that have marked the country’s history. An interesting detail is that, although Pablo Escobar admired Fernando Botero’s art, it cannot be said that the admiration was mutual. The painter created two works depicting the death of the drug trafficker.
• “Boterosutra Series” / “Serie Boterosutra” (2011): This work by Botero is part of an erotic art collection called Boterosutra , marking a milestone in the history of Colombian art as the first artistic representation of sexual intimacy between lovers. This series comprises around 70 small-sized pieces created using various techniques, including colored drawings, watercolors, brushstrokes, and also black and white, all of which constitute one of the most contemporary works by the painter.

Ryan Reynolds

Biography of Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, Canada, and he is a well-known actor. When Ryan was born, his mother, Tammy, was a student and a salesperson, while his father, Jim, worked in wholesale food sales and also excelled as a semi-professional boxer. In addition, Ryan has three older siblings.

He studied in his hometown of Vancouver until 1994 when he decided to join a theater group as an extracurricular activity while attending Kwantlen College. However, his passion for acting became a vocation, and Ryan dropped out of college to devote all his time and energy to his acting career.

Debut as an actor

He quickly landed small roles in successful and memorable TV series such as “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “The X-Files”. In 1998, his big break came with the series “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place”, which ran until 2001 and catapulted him to fame. The show became very popular thanks to its great comedic content, an area where Reynolds demonstrated perfect skill, but this was not the first time that Ryan had made a name for himself in a Hollywood comedy, as he had already been in “Life During Wartime” in 1997.

After working in several minor jobs, Ryan got his first major role as a protagonist in the crazy “Van Wilder – Animal Party”, where he played a college party organizer. The success of the film opened doors for him to work alongside Michael Douglas in “Till Death Do Us Part”, support Wesley Snipes in “Blade Trinity” or star in the horror movie “The Amityville Horror”. However, at this stage of his career, Ryan stood out mainly as a protagonist in comedies such as “Just Friends”, “Waiting” and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”. This led him to want to leave his comedic side behind, getting involved in different projects such as the thriller “Smokin’ Aces”, the independent film “Adventureland” and the action film “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. Later on, he also participated in romantic films such as “The Proposal” and “Definitely, Maybe”. However, recognition of his acting ability did not come until Ryan was nominated for a Goya Award for his demanding role in “Buried”. It is worth noting that he also brought to life the comic book hero “Green Lantern” and the renowned “Deadpool”.

Contracts, curiosities

Prestigious brands like Hugo Boss have not been oblivious to Ryan Reynolds’ popularity, charisma, and good looks, offering him contracts to be the face of one of their fragrances : Boss Bottled Night, a fragrance that, through great advertising, managed to convey an irresistible seductive effect.

Two curiosities can be highlighted from his work: first, the nearly 10 kilos of solid muscle he gained thanks to rigorous physical training to bring Hannibal King to life in “Blade: Trinity”; and second, his appearance on the animated TV series Zeroman, in which he lent his voice to the character Ty Cheese. In addition, like many Hollywood stars, Ryan Reynolds has an eccentricity outside the world of entertainment: a great passion for motorcycles , of which he owns three collector’s items, one of which was designed exclusively for him and is none other than a Harley Davidson.

Romantic relationships

Regarding his personal life, Ryan Reynolds was in a romantic relationship with singer Alanis Morissette from 2002 to 2007. The couple got engaged in 2004, but in July 2006, People magazine reported that they had separated, although neither of them officially confirmed the news. Shortly after, in February 2007, they decided to end their engagement by mutual agreement. In May 2008, Reynolds announced his engagement to actress Scarlett Johansson , and they got married on September 27 of the same year. However, in December 2010, the couple announced in a statement to People magazine that they had decided to end their marriage.

So, on September 9, 2012, he married the actress Blake Lively in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. In October 2014, they announced that they were expecting their first child, and in December of that same year, Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively became parents with the birth of their daughter: Ines. Later, on April 14, 2016, his wife’s second pregnancy was confirmed, and on September 30, 2016, he became a father for the second time to a boy named James.

Biography of Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, born July 9, 1956 in Concord, California, United States, is an actor known as Tom Hanks. Hanks was raised by his father Amos Mefford Hanks, who worked as a cook of English food, and his mother Janet Marylyn, a nurse. He was raised with the values of the Catholic and Mormon religion. During his time at Skyline High School in Oakland, he attended theater classes with his best friend. During his adolescence, Hanks demonstrated his acting talent and won the Best Theater Actor award at his institute. Later, he enrolled in Chabot College in Hayward, California and two years later did a exchange at California State University, Sacramento.

1981 – Debut as an actor

In 1979, the Hanks family moved to New York, which gave Tom the opportunity to debut as a supporting actor in the horror film “Sabe que estás sola” in 1981. Two years later, he landed a lead role in another film. Additionally, he did his first television work in the comedy series “Bosom Buddies.” Later, he decided to move to Los Angeles to participate in “Despedida de soltero” in 1984, although the film was not very successful, it allowed him to be discovered by Ron Howard, who later contacted him to offer a role in “Splash” in 1984.

Since then, Tom starred in several comedy films such as “Amigos del alma” (1980), “Esta casa es una ruina” (1986), “Big” (1988), “No matarás… al vecino” (1989), “Socios y sabuesos” (1989), and “Joe contra el volcán” (1990). His father was always very important in his career, constantly encouraging him to keep fighting for his dream. On several occasions, he helped him to get small roles. He also supported his participation in the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Tom had already made some appearances in series like “Vacaciones en el mar”, “Happy Days”, “Taxi”, or “Family Ties”.

“The King of Comedy”

After a small role in the horror film “He Knows You’re Alone” (1980) directed by Armand Mastroianni, he starred in several comedies that typecast him in comedic roles. His charming personality and natural talent contributed to his growing popularity. Definitely his consecration came in the eighties, he was cataloged as the king of comedy . Thanks to “Big” (1988), he achieved great success for his performance, receiving the Los Angeles Critics Award and an Oscar nomination . Although he had a bit of a downfall after that, he regained momentum as a disillusioned former baseball pitcher who trains a women’s team in “A League of Their Own” (1992).

Tom considered it appropriate to change direction and tackle other stories, to move away from comedy a little. So, he eagerly sought more intense themes where he could showcase his versatility. With his work in “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (1989), directed by Brian de Palma, he attempted to take the first step to break away from light comedies, but the result was not as expected. However, his career took off again with his portrayal of an AIDS-stricken lawyer in “Philadelphia” (1992), directed by Jonathan Demme, an intense character that was quite a challenge. His effort was rewarded with an Oscar. He renewed his commercial success with “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), directed by Nora Ephron, where he teamed up with Meg Ryan, and worked with her again in “You’ve Got Mail” (1998).

Some of his most acclaimed performances

In the mid-90s, Hanks established himself as one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. It’s worth mentioning that his career enjoyed significant success. For his role in Robert Zemeckis’ “ Forrest Gump ” (1994), this has been one of the most striking films of the decade, he was again deserving of an Oscar , a prize that increased, turning him into one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood. With the comedy “The Wonders” (1996), he made his directorial debut.

Later, he did the same in the field of production with the TV series “From the Earth to the Moon,” a work that took him several years. Hanks had the lead role in the feature film “Saving Private Ryan” (1997), directed by Steven Spielberg , with this role he was nominated for the Academy Award, although the film received five Oscars. In 2000, he worked with Robert Zemeckis again in the film “Cast Away,” a film in which his solo performance was praised, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

Between 2003 and 2004, he repeated his collaboration with Spielberg in “Catch Me If You Can” and also in “The Terminal.” In 2006, he starred in the hit film “The Da Vinci Code,” the cinematic version of Dan Brown’s controversial work. Starting in 2014, Hanks’ films have grossed over 4.2 billion in countries such as the United States and Canada, and over 8.4 billion in the rest of the world, he is definitely an actor who ensures great success for films. His fame is such that the asteroid (12818) Tomhanks bears his name.

Marriages, children.

The actor has had several marriages throughout his life. His first marriage was to Samantha Lewes in 1978, from which two children were born: Colin Hanks in 1977 and Elisabeth Ann in 1982. However, the couple divorced in 1985. Later, in 1988, he married actress and producer Rita Wilson , with whom he had two additional children: Chester Marlon in 1991 and Truman Theodore in 1996. In recent years, the actor has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which requires a strict diet and daily care to maintain his health.

Marc Anthony

Biography of Marc Anthony

Marc Anthony (born September 16, 1968) is an American salsa singer and actor , born in New York. His real name is Marco Antonio Muñiz Rivera . From a young age, he has been involved in music, growing up with rock and rhythm & blues. His parents, Felipe Muñiz and Guillermina Rivera, discovered his passion and musical ability when he was a child. During his teenage years, to earn money, he began singing at bars and nightclubs , and quickly gained popularity. He was contacted by one of the members of the Latin Rascals group, and their producer Louie Vega invited him to record several albums with the Atlantic Records label.

Beginnings as a singer

One of Marc Anthony’s most successful musical products was the album “Rebel”, which achieved some success on the disco music charts. In 1992, his career in the salsa world took off when the famous Tito Puente took him as an opening act for a concert at Madison Square Garden. A year later, he recorded a salsa version of a song by Juan Gabriel that received excellent reviews and great popularity in the musical circles of New York. Soon, Marc Anthony appeared in several television productions and began to receive offers for concerts. After a few years, he was recognized as the new “king of salsa”. During the 1990s, his lyrics occupied the top position in Latin America and also in the United States.

The new “musical phenomenon”

Marc Anthony became a massively successful musical phenomenon , comparable to the success of Héctor Lavoe. At the same time, he continued to develop his acting career, appearing in films such as “Bringing out the Dead” directed by Martin Scorsese; “Big Night” directed by Stanley Tucci; “Hackers,” and “The Capeman,” a Broadway musical directed by singer and songwriter Paul Simon. He also performed the main theme of the soundtrack of “The Mask of Zorro” (1998), in which Antonio Banderas was the lead actor.

Third salsa album “Against the Stream”

That same year, he worked on the production of his third salsa album: “Contra la Corriente,” undoubtedly many salsa critics and aficionados affirm that it was the best album of his career, for which he received a Grammy for Best Latin-Tropical Album. In 1999, he released the album “Marc Anthony” to the market, this album undoubtedly demonstrates a new stage in his musical career, as it combined salsa with pop and also featured songs in English, in order to reach and conquer the Anglo-Saxon audience and market.

The first single, “I Need to Know,” put him in the top positions of the North American charts: it remained in the Top 10 of the Billboard for eleven weeks and eight more weeks in the Top 40. He also released the Spanish version, titled “Dímelo.” With this song, he won the Grammy for Best Latin Song of the Year and was number one on the Latin Billboard chart. He quickly released the second single, “You Sang to Me,” repeating the success of the previous one and selling over two million copies of the album.

Starting the new millennium, he released a greatest hits salsa album titled “Desde el principio.” After that, Marc Anthony went on a extensive tour that took him through the United States. All magazines and press talked about his triumphant concert at Madison Square Garden. Then he was in Canada and Central America. At that time, Marc Anthony received the admiration of his fans when he helped with his charitable work for the victims of Hurricane George, in sum, he founded a foundation that bears his name.

International tours

In 2011, he started the Dos Mundos Tour, with the company of Alejandro Fernández , a concert across Latin America. The following year, he was in Colombia at the Manacacías Summer Festival, many people from different parts of the country traveled to attend his concert. He had a significant participation in the 53rd International Song Festival of Viña del Mar, Chile, where he sang the song “¿Y cómo es él?” from his album “Iconos”. He received the highest distinction.

On March 3, 2012, Marc returned to Uruguay after 17 years and gave his performance at the Charrúa Stadium in Montevideo with an attendance of 25,000 spectators. In the GIGANT3S TOUR, he performed in several North American cities alongside Chayanne and Marco Antonio Solís . In 2013, he released his album 3.0. In 2014, he was the big winner of four of the five awards for which he was nominated at the Premios Lo Nuestro. Additionally, his career was recognized as one of the most successful Latin music artists. In 2016, he released a song called “Deja que te bese” with the collaboration of Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz, the song has over 50 million views on Youtube.

In September 2016, he carried out his “Marc Anthony Live” tour which included 5 dates at Radio City Music Hall. His private life has been somewhat controversial and has been exposed to various comments. He had his first daughter in 1994, Arianna Rosado-Muñiz, a product of his relationship with a former police officer from New York. In 2000 he married for the first time to Dayanara Torres, with whom he had two children. He later helped Jennifer Lopez in the production of the song “Sway” for the soundtrack of the movie Shall We Dance?. They then fell in love and after only one month of relationship, they got engaged in March 2004.

The couple had twins and Jennifer sold the exclusive photos of the children to People Magazine. However, after a few years, the couple decided to end their marriage on April 9, 2012. It is said that everything started when Jennifer Lopez met dancer Casper Smart and began a relationship with him two months after her separation from Marc. Later, Marc started a relationship with Venezuelan model Shannon de Lima, whom he married in 2014. Despite this, his relationship with Jennifer, the mother of his children, is harmonious, and he even participated in her song “Olvídame y pega la vuelta” in 2016. Two years earlier, the Puerto Rican singer made an impact with the hit song “Flor Pálida”.

On January 28, 2023, he married Nadia Ferreira in an incredible wedding surrounded by stars from film, music, and sports. The ceremony took place at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, with David Beckham as the best man.

  Ver esta publicación en Instagram   Una publicación compartida por Nadia Ferreira (@nadiatferreira)

Paul McCartney

Biography of Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney (born June 18, 1942) is a singer. He was born in Liverpool, England. His mother, Mary Patricia, was a nurse, while his father, James McCartney, was a volunteer firefighter. During Paul’s birth, his father was not present as he was fighting in the Battle of England during World War II. Paul grew up in a religious and strict environment, with his mother Catholic and his father Protestant, but later became agnostic. After returning from the war, his father devoted himself to selling cleaning products and, in his free time, played in bars.

Death of his mother

That’s why his son developed a deep love for music. He stood out in school for his intelligence and discipline and studied at Liverpool Institute secondary school, a good free secondary school. In 1954, he met George Harrison, with whom he quickly formed a strong friendship. At the time, McCartney’s mother was the one who kept the household and for work reasons they moved to Allerton, where they lived until 1964. On October 31, 1956, when McCartney was 14 years old, his mother died from a stroke.

After his mother’s death, McCartney was devastated. It took some time for him to return to normal. H is father saw music as a refuge to help his son feel better, so he took him to listen to the Jim Mac’s Jazz Band, where his father played trumpet or piano. He also gave him a trumpet, but when rock and roll became popular, he chose an acoustic guitar. The first song he composed was “I Lost My Little Girl” on that guitar, a Zenith. He also composed “When I’m Sixty-Four” on the home piano.

1957 – Met John Lennon

He met Lennon on July 6th, 1957. McCartney joined The Quarrymen, a school band led by Lennon, in 1958 as the lead guitarist. The band mixed rock and roll and skiffle, a popular music style, with jazz and blues. After several name changes, the band decided to call themselves The Beatles in August 1960 and recruited drummer Pete Best for their move to Hamburg. In 1961, one of its members, Sutcliffe, left the band and McCartney was forced to take over as bassist. They recorded as a backing band for English singer Tony Sheridan on the single My Bonnie.

1963 – “Beatlemania”

They managed to attract the attention of Brian Epstein, who became their manager in January 1962 and a key figure in their later success. With their first hit, “Love Me Do” in 1963, the “Beatlemania” began. John Lennon and Paul wrote a large number of songs together, but later their egos collided and they preferred to write separately. In 1970, The Beatles disbanded. But Paul continued his successful career with songs that reached number one. He recorded his first solo LP, “McCartney”, with songs very different from those that Lennon would write, with commercial melodies for varied tastes.

1980 – Paul McCartney Guinness Records

In 1980, he entered the Guinness Book of Records as the highest-selling songwriter in the world. His theme Yesterday , one of the most celebrated by The Beatles , has around 2,500 versions in the most diverse musical styles. Some of his solo hits are: Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Live and Let Die for the James Bond film received the Oscar for best musical theme; Coming Up from his solo album Paul McCartney II. He joined George Martin and Ringo Starr in 1982 for the recording of Tug of War. On Press to play, his next album, was recorded with Eric Stewart.

Awards, arrest, record.

Winner of 18 Grammy Awards, including two Lifetime Achievement Grammy Awards (one with the Beatles and another as a solo artist). He is a vegetarian and an animal rights advocate. He was arrested for marijuana possession in Tokyo in 1980 and was briefly in jail. He participated in the “Live Aid” concert against hunger in Ethiopia in 1985. I n 1990, he achieved the record for the largest attendance at a concert with 184,000 people in Rio de Janeiro. Since 1997 he is Sir Paul McCartney, invested as a knight by Queen Elizabeth II.

2013 – Other awards, marriages.

On February 10, 2013, he received a Grammy for “Best Traditional Pop Album” for his album “Kisses On The Bottom”. Later, he received a special award from PRS for Music in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the composition of his most famous song, “ Yesterday “. These songs, as well as “And I Love Her,” “You Will Not See Me,” and “I’m Looking Through You,” were written inspired by his relationship with British actress Jane Asher. After five years of engagement, the couple broke up due to his infidelity with Francie Schwartz. He married Linda Eastman on March 12, 1969, and together they formed the musical group Wings after the dissolution of the Beatles . In 1999, he presented his collection of poems entitled “Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics (1965-1999)”. After the death of his wife, McCartney experienced deep sadness.

In 2002, Paul McCartney married former model Heather Mills in an Irish castle. After a long legal battle in the London Supreme Court, in 2008 Mills was authorized to collect one fifth of the 250 million dollars she had demanded from McCartney for their four-year marriage. In 2011, McCartney married Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony in London on October 9th of that year.

Relevant aspects of his life and musical career

• With 60 gold records and the sale of over 100 million albums and singles as a solo artist and with The Beatles, McCartney is recognized as one of the most successful composers and artists of all time.
• As a solo artist in 1999 and as a member of The Beatles in 1988, he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.
• As a solo artist and with The Beatles, he has been recognized with twenty-one Grammy Awards.
• 32 of the songs that McCartney has written or co-written have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
• As of 2014, he had sold over 15 million certified units by the RIAA in the United States.
• In 1997, McCartney was elevated to the rank of knight for his services to music.
• In 1965, McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr were named members of the Order of the British Empire .
• He has been married three times and is the father of five children.
• He has participated in projects to help international charities related to issues such as animal rights, seal hunting, landmine cleaning, vegetarianism, poverty and musical education.
• He ranks 11th on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Singers.
• He ranks first on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Artists as a member of The Beatles.
• He ranks third on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Bassists.
• Only surpassed by Bob Dylan , he ranks second on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Songwriters.

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Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World

Home » Book Resources » Key Stage 1 » Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World

Great Women Who Changed The World by Kate Pankhurst

Kate Pankhurst, descendent of pioneering suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, has created this wildly wonderful and accessible book about women who really changed the world. Discover fascinating facts about some of the most amazing women who changed the world we live in.

Featuring figures including: Jane Austen, Gertrude Ederle, Coco Chanel, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie, Mary Anning, Mary Seacole, Amelia Earhart, Agent Fifi, Sacagawa, Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks and Anne Frank.

Main Focus: Adjective - Jane Austen

In this activity, your class will be reading the extracts from the Jane Austen section of the book and identifying adjectives . 

We have created 4 resources within the activity to suit your class.

Main Focus: Adding Adjectives - Jane Austen

You may wish to allow your KS1 / LKS2 class to add in the adjectives to complete the sentences from the Jane Austen section of the book.

Main Focus: Coco Chanel - Non-Fiction Sources

If you’re interested at taking a closer look at one of the greatest fashion designers of our times, Coco Chanel, then download this resource to explore some key facts and information with your KS1/LKS2 class.

Main Focus: Non-Chronological Report - Coco Chanel

This is a non-chronological report linked to the information in the section about Coco Chanel.

Your class will read through the report and identify:

• Eye-catching Title and Logo.
• Introductory Paragraph.
• Picture and Caption.
• Past tense language.
• Subheadings.
• Important information in BOLD (Dates).
• Split into paragraphs with different subject matter.
• Not always essential criteria, but I think a quote sets it off. This is my personal preference as it can engage, create discussion and tell you something about the person.

Main Focus: Comprehension - Marie Curie

This is a comprehension linked to the entire Marie Curie section of the book.

We have aimed this resource to cater for KS1 and LKS2 classes and differentiated the questions accordingly. 

Main Focus: Marie Curie - Science Experiment/ Instruction Writing

This is a great resource to get your class right into the discovery of Marie Curie.

Your class will create an experiment whereby they create glow in the dark slime linked to the radium in the jar that Marie Curie slept beside each night. 

This resource has been created for Y1 up to Year 4 classes.

Main Focus: Alphabetical Order

This activity focuses on alphabetical order and is aimed at Year 1-Year 4.

We have differentiated the resource by amount of text and also the words chosen for this alphabetical order resource linked to Mary Anning.

Main Focus: Mary Anning - True or False

This is a true or false activity linked to Mary Anning in the book Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World.

Your class will read the statements and decide whether they are true or false using the information.

Mary Anning: Additional Resources

Check out this super range of interactive resources linked to the life and discoveries of Mary Anning.

Main Focus: Amelia Earhart - Proper Nouns

This resource focuses on proper nouns used in the Amelia Earhart section of the book.

A proper noun is a specific (i.e., not generic) name for a particular person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are always capitalised in English, no matter where they fall in a sentence.

Your class will identify the proper nouns by circling them. These include names, places, and oceans.

Main Focus: Amelia Earhart - Commas

This resource focuses on Amelia Earhart and commas.

Your class must identify where the commas must go in order to accurately punctuate the sentences.

This is particularly useful if looking at a range of uses for commas within sentences.

Main Focus: Non-Fiction

We have created this resource for Y1-Y4+ and it is linked primarily to the planes that Amelia flew through her years in aviation. It also acts as somewhat of a timeline of events with key dates included.

We have differentiated the content three ways so it is accessible in KS1 and KS2 classes.

Life of Amelia Earhart

The life of Amelia Earhart, a courageous pilot who broke records in the air, is introduced to primary pupils in this short animated film.

This is another great resource exploring The Little Red Bus plane

Main Focus: Eye Witness Account Recording

This audio recording is the account of Mrs Gallagher’s experience of meeting Amelia Earhart after Amelia Earhart landed in her field in 1932.

Footage of Amelia in Northern Ireland

This is footage of Amelia Earhart landing in Northern Ireland in 1932. You can even see by people’s reactions and asking for autographs that this was a remarkable woman and achievement.

Main Focus: Agent Fifi - Two, too and to

This activity focuses on the section linked to Agent Fifi or otherwise known by her real name Marie Christine Chilver.

Your class will read the passages and circle the correct homophone to complete each sentence.

This activity focuses on: two, too and to.

Main Focus: Agent Fifi - Vocabulary Extension

We have taken some of the fantastic vocabulary used in the Agent Fifi section of the book and created this resource for both KS1 and KS2. 

Your class will place the words in the context of the subject matter and look at synonyms/meanings for the words chosen.

Main Focus: Emmeline Pankhurst - Comprehension

This is a comprehension linked to Emmeline Pankhurst on her mission to get women the rights to vote from 1903-1928.

We have differentiated the resource to cater for Year 2-Year 4.

Rosa Parks - Sequencing Events

In this activity, your class will sequence the events and actions taken by Rosa Parks in an important step towards making the lives of black and white people equal.