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Essay: Discover Coco Chanel’s Legacy: The Revolutionary Impact on Women’s Fashion

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  • Published: 25 February 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 757 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 4 (approx)
  • Tags: Fashion essays

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Gabrielle Chanel “Coco Chanel” was an independent and revolutionary in the world of fashion. As a young girl, Chanel’s mother had died, and her father had dropped her and her sister off at a Catholic orphanage. There she learned how to sew.  The black and white color palette of the nuns’ habits, the uncluttered rooms, and even the way the tiles of the floor fit together, inspired Chanel’s design vision. Everything she did was a departure from the past, as she always wanted to improve the lives of women through her creations.

Chanel broke women’s rules in fashion. She took many risks, but those risks turned out to be beautiful.  Coco Chanel’s contributions to fashion helped women feel independent.Over a career spanning 60 years from Paris to the rest of the world, her designs came to define style and elegance for women. She was truly ahead of her time, and she broke into a man’s world founding an empire.

One significant contribution to fashion of Coco Chanel was The Little Black Dress. The LBD was vital because it was simple and beautiful. Therefore it highlighted a women’s inner beauty rather than the beauty of the dress. When wearing a black dress, it wasn’t only a form of independence; it is a form of women rebelling(Eschner, Kat.). Women were just supposed to wear black when mourning, but Coco Chanel changed that Chanel thought if men could wear black whenever they wanted, why couldn’t women? Today, many women’s closets are full of black clothes including the classic little black dress. The LBD started in 1926 when Vogue magazine published a sketch of the little black dress. Vogue described the dress as a uniform for all women of taste. From this moment on, the LBD became very popular and has remained women’s “go to” dress ever since. This dress represented independence in which it showed that women didn’t need very flamboyant dresses to make them beautiful, they can look beautiful in something very simple.

Another significant contribution to fashion of Coco Chanel was the Chanel suit. This was another one of the items that Coco borrowed from menswear.This classic and iconic suit with a skirt and blazer are worn by many elegant, sophisticated, and independent women from all over the world  The Chanel suit consisted of a collarless boxy wool jacket with braid trim, fitted sleeves and metallic embellished buttons with accompanying slimline skirt. This outfit was the perfect choice for the post-war woman of World War 2  who was trying to build a career in the male-dominated workplace. This suit was trendy and favored by celebrities like Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, and made its mark on history when Jackie Kennedy wore it on the day her husband was assassinated (Eleanor Dunne). This suit brought about independence in women because they would wear it when they would work Post- WWII while the men were fighting they developed a feeling of independence. Women had to work for themselves since they didn’t have a man around.

A very important contribution that made women feel equal to men was trousers. In trousers, women had more free movement and were more comfortable.  In the 1800s women weren’t allowed to wear pants. If it weren’t for Coco Chanel women would be only wearing dresses and skirts. These pants were created because Coco Chanel disliked corsets with pants corsets were not needed. Chanel decided that women should enjoy the same freedoms as men and that combining corsets and skirts were physically holding them back  “I gave women a sense of freedom” -Coco Chanel. “I gave them back their bodies”- Coco Chanel.  These pants not only brought about independence, but they made women feel confident and comfortable.

In Conclusion, Coco Chanel had a significant impact on fashion. We may not notice this, but Coco Chanel gave women much freedom, and if it weren’t for her, we would not be able to wear some of the things that we wear today. Coco Chanel brought about independence and fought for women’s rights, just through making clothing. That’s what fashion is all about, expressing yourself through making something beautiful. Chanel made women feel elegant and beautiful inside and out. “Elegance is when the inside is as beautiful as the outside.”  Coco Chanel. Coco Chanel revolutionized fashion and made a difference in how women look and feel. Because of this, she will always be remembered as a legend in the fashion world.

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