Coco Chanel

(1883-1971)

A fashion icon who started her career in Paris in 1914 with the opening of a tailoring shop that eventually evolved into the well-known fashion empire, Chanel. She designed woman's clothing to be comfortable yet attractive. The Chanel line is also popular for it's perfumes. handbags, and suits.
The 1969 musical, Coco is based on her life.

Some quotes by Coco Chanel:

• It is better to be with those who laugh than with those that make you laugh.
• When a man acts like a fool, men say, "What a fool he is." When a woman acts foolishly, men say, "What fools women are."
• To dress young you must feel young. That means being free and easy and unpretentious in your clothes, being able to breathe and move and sit without being conscious of what you have on. Some teenagers are the oldest women I know.
• Youth must be replaced by mystery, prettiness by beauty.
• Lie, if you must, but never in detail, or to yourself.
• I regret nothing in life except what I have not done.

Mademoiselle Chanel's first commercial venture was a milliners, opened in Paris in the year 1909. The fashionable ladies of the racecourse flocked to her little shop, as her hats were causing a sensation -- never before had fashion provided such elegant simplicity, which were worn in stark contrast to the "tortes" and "ridiculous bibis" being worn during this first decade of the twentieth century.

In the year 1913 Mme Chanel opened a dress shop in Deauville, (Normandy), where she designed, manufactured, and was celebrated for her first jersey tailored suits.

As her fame grew, she took the radical step of launching a perfume, Chanel No 5, the first ever scent designed by a couturier. In the 1920's she introduced her eternal classics, the little black dress, a perfectly elegant and versatile shift, and her now ubiquitous tweed suit.

Mme Chanel was a long-time supporter of the arts, and loved the ballet. Mme Chanel died peacefully, on a Sunday.

See also Karl Lagerfeld, who assumed the artistic directorship of the House of Chanel in 1984.

research materials include the French ministère des Affaires étrangères, and the nodist's aquired knowledge

...also an eponymous perfume from the House of Chanel:

Coco Chanel: the fragrance

A good perfume is a subtle adornment for the aura, and this one is luxe, calme, et volupté...

Quality perfumes are described in temporal and musical terms because their numerous ethereal ingredients manifest themselves at different times, often in a compositionally lyrical fashion.

Top notes are very diffuse - they come up very quickly. The top notes are what you smell when you first apply the fragrance.

Coco's top notes are fresh peach, comoros, and coriander. The peach note is not fruity per se... It is more like the smell of a fresh peach that has been neither cut nor peeled, but rather held in the hand until the warmth causes the soft skin to willingly release its scent... The green heartwood and fresh spice from the comoros and coriander support the velvety scent of the peach like carved walnut legs supporting a chaise longue.

Middle notes, or Heart notes have an intermediate volatility (rate of evaporation), and therefore appear approximately ten minutes later to mingle with the top notes.

Coco's heart notes are defined by the rich, earthy sweetness of clove buds, elevated by the citrusy scent of a Caribbean breeze (cascarida and Mimosa) on holiday in the green gardens of Versailles (French angelica). The archetypally feminine scents of Bulgarian rose and red jasmine from India (frangipani) play the role of Greek chorus.

Base notes are the most stable components of the perfume. They become apparent much later (about 30 minutes) in the fragrance development, and are extremely tenacious and long-lasting. The base notes bind the more evanescent notes to the skin in an intimate synergy with the wearer's own natural scent. This synergy is the reason why few perfumes (at least, few perfumes crafted with subtlety) smell exactly the same when worn by different women.

Coco's base notes are naked, honest, and sensual: Myrose sandalwood, amber, and leather. By this cthonic bridge, the evanescent, stellar scents of the top and heart notes linger on the wearer's skin.