Chanel: A Timeless Name in Classic Fashion

One of fashion's most prominent and world-acclaimed fashion designers, signifying style, elegance, class and sex appeal lies in the name Chanel. The brand itself has outlived any other name in the industry and has taken form to accomodate new trends, transforming styles and the reinvention of classic looks. The name is something we often hear in magazines, sometimes history books, and see flooding the streets of many big cities worldwide. There is something to a big name that must be remembered: their presence in pop culture has more importance than fine leathers and classic tweed suits. Their exquisitely-crafted apparel, rare jems and jewels on their finely-made jewelry collections and their focus on durability and unrivaled quality has been their most outstanding features in any given collection. Above all this, Chanel's ability to transform drab into a fury of eye-magnetism, head-turning, and fresh pieces was truly a remarkable milestone in the history of fashion. With this in mind, it is of the utmost importance to understand the label's historical journey through the ages in order to understand the changes between collections, the chameleonic persona that Chanel has adopted throughout the 20th century and why Chanel has become preeminent in the eyes of societies most elite, a name known to fashion connoisseurs around the globe and the ultimate for Women's Couture. In the early 20th Century, Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel opened up her first shop in Paris on Rue Cambon. Chanel had initially started as a designer of hats for actresses in France. This gained her much recognition as she moved into designing women's clothing. Due to the popularity of her hats, Chanel was able to find a place in the French fashion market, creating lines for women that were comfortable, stylish and practical. Many women chose to wear her designs, as they helped provide a favorable relationship between women and their bodies. This change also brought about a new lifestyle, played on by France's rich and famous. In 1921, Chanel No. 5 was introduced and, due to its overwhelming popularity, the following years brought many new fragrances to the name Chanel.
In 1928, Chanel introduced "the little black dress", which brought even more change to the modern woman, proclaiming a unique look to the era of the charleston and the Stock Market Crash of 1929. This was an ideal time to play with different looks, as the culture's dress of the time became flatline and bland. In the same year, Chanel introduced her tweed suit. Each suit was composed of a pencil-lined skirt, a boxy jacket, accented with black trim and costume jewelry (pearls were usually accompanied with this look). Throughout the ages, she was able to change the views of fashion for women around the world. She retired in 1939, and closed her couture house. She came back and stronger than ever, re-opened the house and finally introduced her quilted bag in 1955. This bag had gained her the most recognition, as it was demanded by hundreds of thousands of women all over the world. Interestingly enough, the quilted bag remains the ideal bag for any young woman who wishes to maintain a sense of class and style. Anyone who owns this bag will justify this hefty purchase solely due to it's ageless stylistic presence. After Chanel's death in 1971, the name continued, with no stop, to create fashionable clothes for women around the world. Later in 1983, Karl Lagerfeld took on the design team as Creative Director for Chanel. He has, ever since, maintained Chanel's image and perspecitve. Even with his ability to modify specific looks to incorporate current trends, Lagerfeld maintained Chanel's reputable image of "back-to-basics", incorporating his own looks into the brand.
Some say that the reason Chanel gained popularity was due to her presence in 20th century politics, her relations with political powers around the world and her strong sense of feminism. Whatever the case, Chanel's stance in fashion lied in many of her famous quotes. One of them reads, "Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future." In looking at her collections now, we are able to better understand the history behind the name and the years and years in the making of a unique image and a woman who put it all together to give society one of the leading fashion brands that will indefinitely outlive us all.