Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel was born in 1893 in Auvergne, France. Gabrielle adopted the name Coco during a brief career as a cafe and concert singer in the years 1905-1908. She set up a millinery shop in Paris in 1910 and her many men friends helped her find customers among women of society. Her simple hats became popular.

In the years between 1912 and 1920, became one of the premier fashion designers in Paris. Replacing the corset with comfort and casual elegance, her fashion themes included simple suits and dresses, women’s trousers, costume jewelry, perfume and textiles. She soon expanded to couture. Her relaxed fashions, short skirts and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset fashions popular in the previous decades. Chanel herself dressed in mannish clothes.

In 1922 Chanel introduced a perfume, Chanel No. 5, which became and remained popular, and remains a profitable product of Chanel’s company. Pierre Wertheimer became her partner in the perfume business in 1924, and perhaps also her lover. Wertheimer owned 70% of the company; Coco Chanel received 10% and her friend Bader 20%. The Wertheimers continue to control the perfume company today.

After the Second World War, Chanel made a comeback which restored her to the first ranks of haute couture. Her natural, casual clothing, which included the now famous Chanel suit, once again caught the eye and the purses of women. She introduced pea jackets and bell bottom pants for women. She was still working in 1971 when she died.

Chanel perfumes also designed stage costumes for such plays as Cocteau’s Antigone (1923) and Oedipus Rex (1937) and film costumes for several movies, including Renoir’s La Regle de Jeu. Katharine Hepburn starred in the 1969 Broadway musical “Coco” based on the life of Coco Chanel.