Coco Chanel - Fashion Merchandising - Assignment Example

Coco Chanel The Background of Coco Chanel It is not mandatory for a person to be a fashion maven in order to recognize the name Coco Chanel. Though discrete about her place of birth, Coco Chanel, also known as Gabrielle Bonheur, was born in 1883 in Saumur, France and died in 1971. Coco’s mother passed on when she was a six year old girl, leaving her and her four siblings under the care of her father. Her father soon gave them to various relatives as life became miserable. Coco Chanel ended up in an orphanage, where she mastered the art of sewing.

Coco Chanel never thrived from a fashion background, but hailed from a poverty stricken family. Coco was a performer in her early life periods after pursing a singing career as a nightclub singer. She seemed to be comfortable with singing and the career appeared to be her forte. Nonetheless, Coco realized that her fortune lied elsewhere far from the music industry. She thus later moved to fashion industry, where she left a mark before her demise.1 It was not until 1920s that Coco stamped a lasting authority in the world of fashion.

In the years preceding World War I, Women’s attires were very restrictive and tended to make them more feminine. Women simply dressed to please men. Coco revolutionized the fashion industry by breaking that code by developing simpler clothing for women, which were more practical. Coco brought into existence female trousers as well as suits, which was strange owing to the female dress code in the preceding years. Coco became iconic during mid 1920s not only for specializing in female garments, but also for the historic “black dress”, which took the fashion industry by storm.

2 Coco launched Chanel No. 5 fragrance in 1922 and also initiate Chanel signature cardigan jacket in 1925. Coco worked as a nurse in the middle of World War II, but had to get into hiding following her affair with a Nazi soldier. In 1954, she returned to Paris where she bounced back to fashion world. Coco was industrial in her fashion work until her death in 1971. Interpretation of the Quote: “One might just as well tie a cheque around one’s neck” The quote: “One might just as well tie a cheque around one’s neck” by Coco Chanel was apparently directed towards women of elegance who wore huge and expensive diamond solitaires in the nineteenth century.

Coco was a fashion mogul who designed and sold various fashion products to the bourgeois white consumers. During this period, there was high level of economic inequality in the society. The poor could easily be separated from their rich counterparts because the gap was very wide as exposed by fashion products, which symbolized elegance. One’s economic wellbeing was evident in her conspicuous consumption. Coco Chanel’s quote might also mean the freedom of spending one’s money. Operating in the 18th century when fashion was on its peak, Chanel’s quote reflects how the wealthy in the society spent their money.

She might have used the expression to show that one was at liberty to buy what he or she wanted in the fashion world. Tying a cheque around one’s neck could basically be spending money on expensive diamond necklaces among other products in the fashion industry. This quote basically portrays extravagant spending on elegance in 20th century when the rich dressed for comfort and one’s dress code defined who they were in the society. Bibliography Karbo, Karen. The gospel according to Coco Chanel: life lessons from the worlds most elegant woman.

Guilford, Conn.: Skirt, 2011. Manlow, Veronica. Designing clothes: culture and organization of the fashion industry. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2007.