Countless iterations and imitations have followed, but the understated elegance of Chanel’s original number remains unmatched. The bag’s design was informed by Chanel’s convent days and her love of the sporting world. The chain used for the strap echoed the chatelaines worn by the caretakers of the orphanage where Chanel grew up, whilst the burgundy lining referenced the convent uniforms.
They failed to break her spirit but certainly hardened her resolve to take control of her life as soon as she could. Born in Saumur in a poor house hospice in 1883, Chanel was illegitimate. Her mother died when her daughter was 12, and any fortune teller would have predicted a dark and dreary life of sadness for her from that point. But anyone who could read character and willpower would have known the possibility of a different life path. Even as a young girl, she had beauty, which developed into a coquettish style that entranced men throughout her entire life, thereby enabling her to get whatever she wanted from them. French firm Chanel opposed the bid, arguing the two vertical intertwining semi-circles were too similar to its protected logo, which it uses to sell make-up, perfumes, clothing and accessories.
She first received scathing reviews from critics, but her feminine and easy-fitting designs soon won over shoppers around the world. 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. 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.
Known for timeless luxury in its design, CHANEL has incredible classic styles found in its tweed jackets, dresses, and runway pieces. Chanel No. 5, the phenomenally successful perfume she introduced in 1921 with the help of Ernst Beaux, one of the most-talented perfume creators in France. 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. She partnered with businessmen Théophile Bader of the Galeries Lafayette department store and Pierre Wertheimer of the Bourjois cosmetics company, who both 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.
The quilted outside was influenced by the jackets worn by jockeys, whilst at the same time enhancing the bag’s shape and volume. Alain Wertheimer, son of Jacques Wertheimer, assumed control of Chanel S.A. Alain revamped Chanel No.5 sales by reducing the number of outlets carrying the fragrance from 18,000 to 12,000. He removed the perfume from drugstore shelves and invested millions of dollars in advertisement for Chanel cosmetics.
The collection, executed exclusively in diamonds and platinum, was exhibited for public viewing and drew a large audience; some 3,000 attendees were recorded in a one-month period. Estee Lauder makeup debuted ‘Bijoux de Diamants’ at her Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris mansion. In 2012, the company created a special collection to celebrate Diamants’ 80th anniversary. Current collections include High Jewelry, Camelia, Comete, Coco Crush, Baroque, 1932, Ultra, Bridal and Jewelry Watches.
This fragrance continues to be a worldwide bestseller, maintaining contemporary appeal with innovative advertising and celebrity endorsements. Lancome makeup N°5 and many of the house’s oldest enduring fragrances were created by Ernest Beaux. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for evening wear. 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.
Effortless and elegant, her designs promoted comfort and grace in women’s wear that had been dominated in the previous century by complicated layers of fabric and cumbersome corsets. She followed this success with a couture house, opened in 1915 in Biarritz. Over the next six decades, Coco Chanel would become a pivotal designer of both fashionable casual wear and Paris haute couture as well as an icon and arbiter of 20th-century style with her bob haircut and pearls. Chanel was born into poverty in the French countryside; her mother died, and her father abandoned her to an orphanage. After a brief stint as a shopgirl, Chanel worked for a few years as a café singer.
Lancome makeup‘s extensive ready-to-wear, accessories, handbag and shoe collections are featured in a luxurious, custom-designed setting within Hirshleifers. To enter the Suite Impériale is to step into the history of the Ritz Paris. A veritable boudoir dedicated to the French art de vivre, which is also listed as a Historic Monument. Recognizing herself in the hotel’s philosophy and a style that was beyond the whims of fashion, she ultimately stayed for 34 years, gradually incorporating her favorite furniture, such as velvet sofas, Coromandel lacquer screens and gilded mirrors. Like the iconic designer who decorated her suite herself in her day and whose vision of French chic has spanned decades and cultures, this Prestige Suite is for aesthetes and lovers of an elegant, sober and discreet contemporary décor. Coco Chanel was a seamstress who became associated with several wealthy men, one of whom, Arthur (“Boy”) Capel, provided her with financial assistance to open a millinery shop in Paris in 1910.