1. Today's guide
Hello friends, welcome to open Yiqing Yue to read, I am Yiqing, today I will continue to interpret "The Biography of Coco Chanel" for you
Strange Life" book.
Yesterday, we learned about Chanel's unfortunate family of origin, as well as her abandonment by her biological father in a convent orphanage, and saw that the only consolation in her cold life in the orphanage was to learn a "sewing" craft, so she got to work outside the home and had the honor to meet a lover, and start the journey into the fashion field with the help of a lover.
So, today, let's take a closer look at how she built her fashion empire with her first-class fashion taste and life aesthetics.
Chanel said: "Fashion, like a landscape, presents the state of the mind, and my fashion is showing my state of mind." ”
Yes, Chanel's experiences before the age of 18, in addition to giving her the skills to earn a living, laid the foundation for an aesthetic that mixed simplicity, solemnity and luxury, and gave her the tone of a lifelong aesthetic – clean, simple and pure.
Chanel has always believed that clothes are not only for seeing, but also for wearing, both beautiful and comfortable.
Because of this, in the turbulent times of war, she seized the opportunity to innovate and make a bold improvement to fashion, thus changing the trajectory of fashion, which has to start with the First World War.
2. Seize opportunities for innovation in turbulent times
After the outbreak of the First World War, Chanel followed Caber's advice and evacuated Paris to the seaside resort of Duvière, where she opened a Chanel fashion store.
Caber, then a captain of the British Army in France, rented a country house for his foals in Duvier, and with the arrival of the polo players, fashionable women flocked to Duvier that year, all in need of new clothes.
They arrive at the picturesque seaside resort of Duvière, where men in shorts play on the beach, but they cannot relax, perched under parasols or hidden in canvas tents.
Because they wore the same clothes as in the city, still wrapped in layers like onions, corsets, tunic mopping skirts, layered and decorated with breathless lace, embroidery, tulle, ruffles, this restrained dress, like a shackle, could not do any outdoor sports at all.
Chanel was acutely aware that women's lavish clothing was out of place.
"Fashion should be about place, time," she says. And it was at such a time and place that she flexibly seized new opportunities and set off a minimalist style trend in the fashion industry.
Because satin lace and tweed were scarce during the war, and customers could not afford to use these expensive fabrics, Chanel replaced the expensive fabrics that were difficult to buy with primary color fabrics according to local conditions, and worked the design to make a drastic improvement to traditional women's clothing.
She abandoned the suffocating corset and corset, and all the design was completely adhering to the concept of freedom, comfort and casualness, and launched the first sports women's clothing, this knitted wool sportswear is simple in shape, comfortable to wear, and can show women's curves, liberate women, and become a popular Chanel children's clothing.
There are also simple sailor shirts, straight skirts, knitted coats, which are chic but unassuming; Solid color, in line with the atmosphere of the times, wearing these clothes, both to drive an ambulance or military vehicle, but also to run, both suitable for the work that women are required to complete during the war, but also suitable for walking by the sea, to meet the dual needs of women's work and life, therefore, it is popular and loved by women, and has become the only suitable fashion outfit.
Chanel once proudly said: "I created fashion that allows women to live, breathe, feel comfortable and look young."
Not only that, Chanel also used the classic pure black and pure white to the extreme, and the classic little black dress was second to none.
3. Classic pure black with pure white
So, what kind of chance inspired her to design this timeless classic little black dress?
Again, I want to mention Caber. In 1919, Chanel's beloved Cabo died in a car accident, and for Chanel, losing Caber was like losing everything, and Caber's death brought Chanel unforgettable pain.
Since then, she has fallen in love with black, and she believes that black has a mysterious power that shelters her like Caber. In those days, black clothes were only worn at funerals, and only black could express the deepest sorrow.
Although the loss of her love made Chanel painful, she will not be destroyed by life, thanks to the rise of her career, she has not been sluggish, she uses her own unique vision, not to take the ordinary path, with her own design to call women to wear black that symbolizes strength and freedom.
She chose black Chinese crepe as the fabric to design an elegant and restrained little black dress, which is sought after by new women. This color of mourning became a celebration of elegance, simple and elegant, with smooth lines and restrained understatement, and Vogue, a fashion magazine at the time, predicted that it would soon be a revolution in black and usher in a new era of fashion.
Sure enough, Chanel continued to innovate in fabrics, designs and details, creating the myth of the little black dress, which has since become synonymous with "modern classic" and is still the dream choice of many women today. Coco is therefore known as "Mademoiselle Chanel".
So, what is Chanel's attitude towards pure white?
In the dark shadows of the Great Depression, white was fashionable, which Chanel called "frank innocence and the age of white satin".
We know that Mademoiselle Chanel had many lovers in her life, but she was never married, and although she never wore a wedding dress, she knew the strong charm of the white dress.
Chanel once said: "Black embraces everything, so does white, their beauty is impeccable, absolute harmony." At the ball, women dressed in black or white are always in focus. ”
Yes, if Chanel wears white, it must be the focus of the focus.
As long as you open a fashion magazine after 1929 and turn to the pages of fashion celebrities, it is enough to prove this statement. Chanel's fashionable figure in a white dress can be seen everywhere.
On the island of the Lido in Venice, she wears a white pajama-style beachwear with a gemstone bracelet on her hands; On the tennis court of the holiday villa, she is dressed in flawless white, white hat, white shoes and white tennis suit; In Poole Harbour, England, she can also be seen wearing a snow-white skirt and white coat.
At parties and balls in Paris and Monte Carlo, Chanel can be seen calmly dressed in white satin dresses and shiny pearls, and more often than not, the noblewomen and ladies in her signature dreamy, sexy and seductive white evening dresses, also shining in social situations.
Chanel has a unique taste for bright white, and ever since she tanned her skin on vacation on the Côte d'Azur, she has loved the contrast between white and bronzed skin, which has led to another fashion trend.
Chanel leads fashion trends and is limited to clothes and hats, but how can it lack women's favorite perfumes and diamond jewelry?
4. Women's indispensable perfume, diamond jewelry
Speaking of perfume, I immediately think of Chanel No. 5 perfume, which has laid a solid foundation for Chanel's fashion empire.
So, how did this perfume come about?
It was 1920, and Chanel met a very important figure through her Russian lover, Archduke Demitri, the perfumer of the Russian tsaric court, Ennis Pou. At that time, Madame Chanel asked Ennisbaugh to make several bottles of perfume for her.
Fresh back from the battlefield, Ennis remembered that near the Arctic Circle, the lakes and rivers there always exude an extremely refreshing smell under the aurora at midnight, and he used this as inspiration to create two bottles of perfume.
One of the bottles of perfume evokes Chanel's childhood memories of the smell of her aunt's alkaline soap, the faint smell of vanilla emanating from the cupboards, and the smell of freshly waxed furniture and floors.
She declared: "This is an unprecedented perfume, a feminine perfume. ”
Launched on May 5, 1921, this perfume with Grasse Jasmine, Balmese Tree Flower, Orange Blossom, May Rose, Sandalwood and Bourbon Vetiver is a timeless classic in the perfume world, Chanel 5.
Perfume No. 5 is a perfume revolution that perfectly blends natural and synthetic ingredients.
This fragrance created great wealth for Madame Chanel and was the first perfume ever named after the designer.
After talking about perfume No. 5, let's talk about Chanel's use of diamond jewelry.
It is not a secret that women love beautiful clothes, and it is not a secret that women love diamond jewelry, as Chanel with a unique aesthetic vision, in her clothing design, how can she ignore the design of these diamond jewelry elements that highlight charm and taste!
Although Paris in 1932 was overshadowed by the Great Depression in the United States, everyone thought that luxury goods were long out of place. But Chanel did the opposite, boldly holding a personal diamond and jewelry exhibition.
Madame Chanel pioneered a new style of jewelry design, mixing and matching precious jewelry with glassware to create a variety of beautiful accessories.
Each piece of jewelry can be worn in a variety of ways: a jewel crown can be transformed into a bracelet, earrings can be used as brooches, and stars can be adorned on garter belts.
The all-purpose design makes the investment in jewelry more worthwhile. The varied design is fun and her whimsy is breathtaking.
Photographer Cecil Beaton praised in The Mirror of Fashion: "Chanel has a talent for simplifying the complex, and her designs are dazzling.
Indeed, she is a resourceful business genius who captures the vanity of all people, masters the woman's desire for freedom, and knows how to establish a high-end image of the product.
The Paris media praised the show, and even the American media reported on it, and De Beers' shares rose 20 percentage points on the London Stock Exchange.
At this time, Chanel, a villager born in a poor country, had gone from a lonely and pitiful abandoned daughter in a monastery, and with her own hard work and the full help of her lover, she rose all the way to the upper class of Paris, jumping through layers of barriers to enter the high society of Paris, and achieved her fashion empire with her first-class fashion taste and life aesthetics.
Well, today's sharing is here, let's review it together:
5. Knowledge points
First of all, we introduced Chanel's opportunity to innovate in turbulent times, setting off a trend of minimalist style.
Then she shared her classic little black dress, the white dress that led the fashion trend.
Then she shared the origin of No. 5 perfume and her varied and whimsical designs for diamond jewelry.
So, what else are you interested in the fashion empire created by Chanel? Welcome to leave a message below the comment area!
Tomorrow I will continue to interpret the third part for you: the return of the king after fading out of silence.
Well, see you tomorrow~
The golden sentence of this article:
1. Fashion, like a landscape, presents the state of the mind, and my fashion is presenting my state of mind.
2. Clothes are not only for seeing, but also for wearing, both beautiful and comfortable.
3. Chanel has a flair for simplifying complexity, and her designs are dazzling.
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#Chanel Little Black Dress##Chanel No. 5 PerfumeChanel Classic No. 5 Perfume##Chanel Jewelry#