Coco was not his real name
The woman who called herself Coco Chanel was actually born under the name of Gabrielle Bonheur Chasnel on August 19, 1883 in Saumur in Pays de la Loire. The legendary Chanel logo incorporates the two C's interlaced with the name of its creator and founder, Coco Chanel.
Coco Chanel is an orphan of father and mother
Her mother, a seamstress, died at the age of 32, while Chanel was only 12, leaving behind five children. His father, a merchant, abandons his children. He deposited his three daughters in the orphanage of the abbey of Aubazine in Corrèze. Chanel will spend almost 7 years there.
One can therefore be "pre-destined" to a very difficult life and succeed in building one of the greatest empires of the twentieth century.
Chanel was a cabaret singer
Chanel, who wants to escape her destiny as an orphan and "simple seamstress", dreams of being a "music hall" star. She performed at "La Rotonde" a cabaret of the Allier. She made herself known and courted by repeating "Who saw Coco in the Trocadero? ". That's where his nickname "Coco" comes from. To others she preferred to say that it was the nickname that her father had given her before going off to make a fortune in America. This is obviously false since we know that he abandoned his five children.
Coco Chanel knew the great love
His great love was Boy Capel, a rich Englishman with whom she had a 9-year relationship. He helped her open her first boutiques in Paris and Deauville and finally her first fashion house in 1918, in Paris. It is said that the masculine and chic style of Boy Capel inspired the CHANEL wardrobe (blazers, navy blue, and beige). Boy Capel dies in a car accident on December 24, 1919.
Coco Chanel dies misunderstood
Coco Chanel dies on January 10, 1971 at the age of 87 in Paris in her personal suite of the Ritz, hotel in which she had established resident for a few years. Shortly before her death in 1969, Chanel showed a much less flattering eye in an interview where she was much criticized for her rejection of modernity.
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