My life never pleased me, so I created my own life.
- Chanel
Text / Ba Jiuling (WeChat public account: Wu Xiaobo channel)
In 2022, there seems to be no good investment and financial channels.
The stock market does not give face, and the Shanghai Composite Index is still hovering at 3,000 points; Once a star fund manager, this year almost invariably set a double-digit negative growth performance; I wanted to deposit money in the bank, looked at the fixed deposit rate, and hesitated again ...
Except for one category of products - luxury goods. What was once a consumer product has become an appreciating asset in the past two years. Louis Vuitton, for example, can increase the average second-hand transaction price by 20% per year, Chanel is even more exaggerated, up 25%, and its classic Classic Flap, compared with the price at the beginning of 2019, has increased by as much as 84%.
The higher it rises, the more sought-after it gets. After Chanel's price increase in 2021, sales increased by almost 50% year-on-year.
Unlike LVMH and Kering, Chanel is an independent fashion brand and is destined to fail to follow the commercial expansion model. So, what kind of magic does Chanel have, and what kind of business story does it have behind it that makes women so fascinated? Today let's talk about the founder of the Chanel brand: Coco Chanel.
In fact, those so-called "aristocratic blood" luxuries, almost none of the founders have upper-class genes. For example, Hermès was a harnesser craftsman, Louis Vuitton was a luggage packer, and Chanel founder Coco Chanel was a tailor shop woman who came out of the nuns' workhouse
Coco Chanel's original name was Gabriel Chanel. Earning a living on her own at the age of 18, she works part-time during the day and spends her evenings in a bar, but she only sings two songs, one of which is called "Who Saw Coco?" 》。 Coco is a lost dog. Because of the repeated singing of this song, people began to call Chanel Coco. Coco Chanel got its name from this.
Rely on men, surpass every man
Chanel never married and had no children, but her life was full of manhood.
Chanel had six important men in her life. One of the greatest influences on Chanel was none other than Arthur Capel. He may be the only person Chanel ever loved, and this relationship is the most romantic in Chanel's life.
In 1910, with the help of Caber, Chanel owned the first hat shop in Paris. With a keen sense of fashion, Chanel's hats won the love of noblewomen, and she herself quickly achieved financial independence. "I thought I gave you a toy, but I didn't expect to give you freedom," Capel said. ”
However, the concept of door-to-door dismantling the mandarin ducks. Cabo had to marry another noble lady and died in a car accident a year later. This time, Chanel cried in public, as if she had lost the world.
It may be only she who brought Chanel out of the river of sorrow.
In honor of Caber, Chanel designed the brand's logo as a double C logo with a reverse cross, which is taken from the initials of Chanel and Capel, which means that they will never be separated.
The ubiquitous element of camellia in the product was the first bouquet of flowers that Capel had given to Chanel.
She sees the mournful black of the little black dress as an elegant celebration, "black destroys all flowers and greenery", because it is a tribute to the dead lover.
Chanel logo, camellia elements and a little black dress
With selfishness and regret, Chanel hid this love into her designs. It can be said that this experience has shaped the spiritual core of the Chanel brand.
The second most influential on Chanel's business empire was her third boyfriend, named Pierre Le Verdi. Some say he was "the purest writer of his time." In contrast to the previous relationship, this time it was Chanel, who was financially independent, who financed the poor poet's dream.
In return, Le Verdi also contributed many famous quotes, such as: "Luxury is an indispensable necessity after satisfying life." "It's sad to have someone else dress up in disguise." These words that transcended the times helped Chanel complete the sublimation of her life and value proposition, and also became Chanel's brand culture later.
Unfortunately, this relationship was very short-lived. However, after the breakup, the two maintained a friendship for 50 years.
Chanel's two relationships, one is an unforgettable memory, the other is a collision with the thoughts of a pure soul; One paragraph allowed Chanel to complete the original accumulation of business, and the other made Chanel transform into a fashion brand.
At different stages of Chanel's life, she continued to draw nourishment from her soul, ideas and career from each relationship, which gave birth to great products such as Chanel No. 5 perfume and the classic sailor's shirt and so on. She relies on men, but transcends every man.
Picasso, who has been a lifelong companion and lifelong friend of Chanel, commented: "Chanel is the most spiritual person in Paris, she can make the ordinary shine the light of diamonds." ”
If I don't create trends, I am trends
However, Chanel did not get lost in the web of money and love, but fell into a larger web of times - female independence.
Chanel lived at the beginning of the 20th century, which was the era of enlightenment of women's independent consciousness in Europe.
In 1918, Britain passed the People's Elections Act of 1918, marking the formal right of modern women to vote and achieving political independence; In 1919, the invention of the natural latex condom saved women from the fear of unwanted pregnancy and achieved physical independence.
Women's sense of independence is also awakening. At the beginning of the 20th century, many outstanding women emerged, including Simone Beauvoir, author of The Second Sex, Hannah Arendt, political theorist, Susan Sontag, and so on.
Chanel also contributed to the process of women's ideological emancipation.
In the "post-industrial era" of the early 20th century, women gained equal possibilities with men in work, more and more women went out to work, and complicated traditional clothing made them urgently need to obtain physical liberation.
Female workers producing ammunition in factories during World War I
Chanel used "goods" as a weapon to design a series of simple and restrained clothes such as "Little Black Dress", which perfectly met the needs of modern women and let women jump out of complicated and vulgar clothing.
In the eyes of the world, Chanel's design is in line with the trend of the times and at the same time shaping the times.
However, she said domineeringly: "I don't create trends, I am trends." ”
Because she is the epoch-making person in the field of fashion design, the one who redefined the rules. The changes she brought in the field of fashion are not only in fabrics, colors, and styles, but through her independent consciousness, she suddenly reversed the aesthetics of an era and the trend of an era.
Looking back on Chanel's life, she made two crucial contributions to the world of fashion.
The first is the creation of "new populism". Buying luxury goods is not to become an aristocrat, but to the yearning of commoners for a high life. It was from the little black dress that Chanel passed on the fashion concept to the common people. "Some people think that the opposite of luxury is poverty, but it is not, the opposite of luxury is vulgarity."
The second is to return the definition of fashion to women. Chanel tells everyone that you shouldn't be kidnapped by fashion, that everyone has the right to make their own choices and should have their own aesthetic propositions.
Chanel said: "You can't afford to wear Chanel, and you may not have many clothes to choose from, but never forget that you have the most important piece of clothing called self." ”
Yes, a woman's most important piece of clothing is called the self.
Use commodities to precipitate the brilliance of human thought
A great brand, a great woman, and the contribution to the times is to precipitate the shining point of human thought in that era with goods at a certain point in time.
Chanel was a fashion thinker who changed the times with her aura and talent.
We must not ignore that the self-made Chanel, as a great entrepreneur, her shining light of diligence has also influenced countless younger generations in the fashion industry.
The person who has accompanied her the longest in her life may not be "male", but the scissors used to cut clothes. Until the day before her death, Chanel was still racing against time to design new women's clothing with scissors.
She said, "If one day, you are desperate to the extreme, there is no one or thing around you to rely on, and there is a friend whose door is always open for you, that is work." ”
Born into poverty, he went against the current and changed the world.
"My life never pleased me, so I created my own."
Today's article is adapted from "Hearing Wu Xiaobo Every Day" and "Wu Xiaobo Peruses Business Classics".
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Audio Planning | Xu Tao
Audio Operations | Chang Xiujuan | Editor-in-Chief | Zheng Yuanmei