Coco Chanel’s designs originally started a fashion movement, but now they are considered fashion staples in the 2000s. teadrinker/flickr.com
“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different,” Chanel said. And yet, everywhere that there is the English alphabet, one is bound to see the iconic interlocking C’s, stamped upon a Chanel purse or necklace, strolling through the grocery store or across a bustling street. Chanel has become something ordinary and conventional, rather than extraordinary.
In today’s sartorial age, all women – be it an adolescent with braces or a CEO with wrinkles- aspire to embody Chanel’s characteristic essence of simple luxury. This past year, the Chanel dynasty amassed a net income of approximately $280 million, presumably with the help of women and their attempts to emulate the fashion house’s iconic Coco.
Notorious for her outspoken nature, menswear-inspired designs and luxurious simplicity, Coco Chanel was – and still is– the archetypal modern woman. The cropped bob and red lipstick of Chanel in the 20s is relevant and often emulated today. Chanel’s classic little black dress and pearls have been worn to the Emmy’s more times than Coco had lovers. Each day, her trademark suit is donned like armor by powerful women across continents, just as it was 90 years ago.
In the early 1900s, Chanel, a failed coffee house singer, was taken under the wing of a young, French textiles heir, Etienne Balsan, who encouraged her to take her first fashion steps as a hat maker. In 1910, she opened an eponymous boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris. Named Chanel Modes, the boutique was made popular by the luxurious comfort of her jersey blazers.
In 1925, she introduced the now legendary Chanel suit: a collarless, boxy jacket paired with a trim, knee-length skirt, shorter and much more liberating than the stricter prevailing fashions of the time. Chanel’s pieces accentuated the female frame, rather than contorting the body like a corset. She was also the first to reinterpret the use of black, previously ordained as a color of mourning, with her iconic “little black dresses.”
Borrowing elements of menswear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of a corset, Chanel was the harbinger of a new sartorial age, and, thus, her popularity has flourished across seas and generations.
Presently, the Chanel brand is seated as one of the crown jewels of the fashion industry, most notably for its tweed suits and luxury handbags. Clothing aside, Chanel has also ornamented its repertoire with the addition of skincare and make-up products to already booming jewelry and perfume industries. Whether the product is fake or genuine, Chanel’s influence spans cultural, social, and economic divides. Chanel has essentially become the Coca-Cola of the fashion world.
However, now that Coco Chanel has become a fashion staple, she also has become conventional. Women don a Chanel suit and some red lipstick and believe they are the a modern day Coco. They fail to realize that the essence of Chanel was not captured through what she wore, but rather, through her extraordinary sense of style. To don Chanel’s quintessential little black dress now as she did in 1926, festooned in pearls and costume jewelry, would be foolish: that fashion has since faded.
Following her decree that “fashion passes, style remains,” the originality of Coco Chanel’s trademark pieces has since passed, and yet, her style is still worth emulating. Instead of being sartorial outliers, the fashions of Coco Chanel have become traditions to be reinterpreted. It is imperative to own at least one little black dress, but reinterpret it as Chanel would today, not in the 20s. Pearls are always a luxurious companion to an evening gown, but they can also befriend a casual v-neck. Instead of only emerging in the nocturnal hours, red lipstick can be worn during the day, with yoga pants, or a Chanel business suit.
In order to channel Chanel’s sense of style, maturity is essential. The mistake most women make is to believe that one is ready for Chanel too soon. To embody Chanel’s sense of casual luxury and daring originality takes years to perfect. Teenage girls parading about with a Chanel handbag in one hand and a bedazzled iPhone in the other fail to understand the beliefs behind the brand, the ideals regarding refinement and luxury. Young people often view Chanel as a stamp of the wealth and class they aspire to emulate, rather than a much larger ideal regarding personal awareness, nonconformity and style.
Each Chanel purchase should be a milestone for the life of a woman’s wardrobe. It is now an expectation to own a quilted Chanel shopper when one is wealthy enough to purchase it, but also wise enough to understand the sartorial tradition the Chanel logo entails. The interlocking C’s are a testament to an outspoken Parisian who smoked and wore men’s clothing with sex appeal. In 1971, Coco left behind a legacy that sparked a sartorial revolution. Now, the brand Chanel reinvents itself each spring and fall, under the watchful eye of Karl Lagerfeld, forever reinterpreting Coco’s tradition. For Chanel represents more than a woman in history, she represents the ideal of a modern woman, a woman we so desperately seek to channel.
Katelyn Edwards can be reached at katelyn.edwards@spartans.ut.edu.
Source:
