Cezanne's Coco Character Sheet
Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, was and is known the world over by her nickname "Coco" Chanel, Coco being the short form for Cocorico, the French version of Cock-a-doodle-doo, which came from her childhood habit of awakening early to go horseback riding. From the verge of adult hood to the eve of her death on January 10, 1971, Coco insisted on being referred to as Mademoiselle, a blatant stand for her desire of independence.
Born on the summer night of August 19, 1883 in the small French province of Saumur, Chanel moved from there to live with her aunts in Auvergne at the tender age of 7 or 8 due to the death of her mother and the abandonment by her father. At age 16 she moved to Paris where she opened the famous Rue Cambon boutique and the House of Chanel (Maison Chanel). She spent the last 30 years of her life, until her dying day, living at the Paris Ritz Hotel.
Often regarded as La Petit Mademoiselle, one can only guess that she was physically small, the pictures show a slim, slender woman of undistinguishable height. Some of her trademark features were her shortly cropped hair, a daring risk by now-a-days standards, unheard of by yesterdays, a little known feature about her hair was that it was at first, an unintentional accident which left her hair singed. She was a hard featured woman who was more identified by her accessories, strings and strings of faux pearls around her neck and a cigarette in her hand.
Information about Coco's life is scarce, when sent to live with her aunts, she was taught by nuns who attempted to teach Coco to sew, a skill that eluded her to her dying day. As she left to open a millnery with the aid of a wealthy suitor at 16, her institutionalized education could not have been too great. Despite that, she was a great fan of the arts and literature and has been referred to as one of the shrewdest and most intellectual women of her time.
Coco Chanel started life out by designing hats in a shop bought for her by a wealthy suitor named Etienne Balsan. With this little shop, Chanel made enough to finance her dream since she was a little girl dressing up her dolls in scraps, to design. She started off in 1916 in Biarritz and moved in 1920 where she set up the House of Chanel in a single building on the corner of the Rue Cambon in Paris, that single building has spawned now spawned to 5 buildings. The House of Chanel is the location where Coco designed, fitted, made and had the clothes modeled, to be sold at the Boutique Cambon location on the Rue Duphot.
Chanel as a designer was known for many things, some including creation of costume jewelry, the launch of the minimalistic approach in the 1920s with the sailor dress, the turtleneck, the pullover and the androgynous look of the flat chest and cropped hair (Keep in mind, women at these time were experiencing the transition from the corset to the lack thereof). She then popularized the use of pants for women and the creation of two of fashions everlasting pieces, the basic little black dress, referred to once by Vogue magazine as "Chanel's Ford." and the Chanel Suit (And appropriate accessories). Though she was one of fashions most influential designers and her career spanned an approximate 5 decades, Chanel is still first and foremost remembered for her signature fragrance, Chanel No5. Chanel loved to quote the poet Paul Valery who once said "a badly perfumed woman has no future.". Chanel No5 was specially blended for her, creating a heavy scent. The perfume still is ranked as one of the top 5 best selling brand in major department stores world wide. Besides No5, the House of Chanel have created new scents as well, including Coco, Cristalle, and the latest, Coco Mademoiselle.
Key tags of the legend would include pacing, throwing arms in the air and exaggerated gestures, these being ways of physically keeping people away from her, in order to protect her independence. And always, always, always Coco must be in complete ease with the world around her.
