Coco Chanel

Has anyone heard about Audrey Tatou doing a sequel next year to Coco Before Chanel?  No?  Me neither.  Wishful thinking, I guess.  I did just finish reading Karen Karbo's The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman—delightful little book.  Went to check out one of the three other Chanel books owned by my library, but those were all already loaned out.  Evidently, I'm not the only one needing an additional Chanel fix.

So, for the others out there needing more "glamour soup for the soul," I'd like to share an excerpt from an August 1928 Time article titled "Business: Haute Couture." 

"From Paris, last week, came reports of feverish activity around Place Vendôme and particularly, along that brief but important, severe but incredibly expensive street known as the Rue de la Paix.  Crowds milled about sternly-guarded doorways; ultra-fashionable women sought admission as to the most coveted box at the Opera; Parisian celebrities entered with an air of triumph, emerged with subdued cries of 'Oh!' and 'Ah!'

To the Parisian, even to the accustomed tourist, the mêlée in the Rue de la Paix was not unfamiliar.  Similar scenes had been observable just a year ago...as every true follower of fashion knows, there are two months in the year when the couturiers open their magnificent salons to the view of a favored few, display their latest triumphs of design, reveal what the well-dressed woman will wear for the next six months.

Many a fortunate Parisian hastened, last week, from the grand opening of the dressmakers to ponder how she should persuade her husband that no matter how chic she might appear in his eyes, in truth she would be in rags unless her wardrobe conformed to these newly pronounced edicts.

[The latest trends] were seen last week in the salons of the 200 French dressmakers who pretend to Haute Couture.  But of these 200, not more than 15 or 20 had originated new and startling designs.  It was possible, therefore, for Parisians to discuss, eliminate, select the real titans of post-War fashions.  And Parisians chose, not without acrid debate and violent disagreement, the Big Six of the dressmaking industry."

Of course, Chanel was among this "Big Six."  The article continued with the following on Chanel:

"Chanel. The fame of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel has waxed since the War.  Sweaters have made her name and her fortune, the light, boyish sweaters which form the sports costume of many an American and English woman.  The story of Gabrielle is shrouded in mystery.  Some say she is of Basque origin, the daughter of a peasant.  Others declare her youth was spent in Marseilles, where the jerseys of sailors gave her the idea for the emancipated woman's golfing costume.  Even today she is something of an enigma to gossip-loving Paris.  'Coco' Chanel is not beautiful, yet her name is linked with that of Prince Dimitri, Parisian man of the world, famed connoisseur of beautiful women."

Style advice from 1926: always wear your hat at a jaunty angle.

1929: The modern woman's sportswear

1936: statement pearls

1937: the Chanel jacket

A lesson in layering.

c. 1927: the little black dress—simple wool jersey becomes elegant through superior tailoring techniques.

1938: an evening dress with fireworks motif worn by Countess Madeleine de Montgomery

Photos courtesy of The Guardian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.