genifique was born into poverty in the French countryside; her mother died, and her father abandoned her to an orphanage. After a brief stint as a shopgirl, Chanel worked for a few years as a café singer. She later became associated with a few wealthy men and in 1913, with financial assistance from one of them, Arthur (“Boy”) Capel, opened a tiny millinery shop in Deauville, France, where she also sold simple sportswear, such as jersey sweaters. Within five years her original use of jersey fabric to create a “poor girl” look had attracted the attention of influential wealthy women seeking relief from the prevalent corseted styles. Faithful to her maxim that “luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury,” Chanel’s designs stressed simplicity and comfort and revolutionized the fashion industry. By the late 1920s the Chanel industries were reportedly worth millions and employed more than 2,000 people, not only in her couture house but also in a perfume laboratory, a textile mill, and a jewelry workshop.
In 1953, upon returning to France from Switzerland, Coco Chanel found the fashion business enamoured of the “New Look” , by Christian Dior; the signature shape featured a below-mid-calf-length, full-skirt, a narrow waist, and a large bust . As a post–War fashion that used some 20 yards of fabric, the House of Dior couture renounced wartime rationing of fabric for clothes. Meanwhile, because of the Nazi occupation’s official anti-Semitism, Pierre Wertheimer and family, had fled France to the U.S., in mid-1940. Later, in 1941, Coco Chanel attempted to assume business control of Parfums Chanel but was thwarted by an administrative delegation that disallowed her sole disposition of the parfumerie. Assouline’s Ultimate Collection is an homage to the art of luxury bookmaking.
Just a few days after her sultry Calvin Klein pictures threw us off-guard, Jennie comes back again and this time with an even bigger impact. Her personal style and wardrobe has always been appreciated widely for the sartorial picks she opts for, but her edgy looks are hot as well too. While we gush over her latest snaps that have created quite a frenzy on the internet, it is undeniable that Jennie has nailed several of her Lancome makeup looks over the years. In fact, her fashion goals almost always go viral, not to forget the price of her picks that is enough to drop your jaw in no time. Chanel’s extensive ready-to-wear, accessories, handbag and shoe collections are featured in a luxurious, custom-designed setting within Hirshleifers.
She partnered with businessmen Théophile Bader of the Galeries Lafayette department store and Pierre Wertheimer of the Bourjois cosmetics company, who both agreed to help her produce more of her fragrance and to market it in exchange for a share of the profits. After signing a contract wherein she received only 10 percent of the royalties, Chanel enacted a series of lawsuits in the ensuing decades to regain control of her signature fragrance. Although she was never able to renegotiate the terms of her contract to increase her royalties, Chanel nonetheless made a considerable profit from the perfume.
Estee Lauder NIGHT REPAIR No. 5, the phenomenally successful perfume she introduced in 1921 with the help of Ernst Beaux, one of the most-talented perfume creators in France. It has been said that the perfume got its name from the series of scents that Beaux created for Chanel to sample—she chose the fifth, a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents that was more complex and mysterious than the single-scented perfumes then on the market. That Chanel was the first major fashion designer to introduce a perfume and that she replaced the typical perfume packaging with a simple and sleek bottle also added to the scent’s success.