Vogue on coco chanel, Sintesi del corso di Costume E Moda

Scarica Vogue on coco chanel e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Costume E Moda solo su Docsity! VOGUE ON COCO CHANEL 1.EASY ELEGANCE In 1917, just four years after Coco Chanel had launched her own label, she was known on both sides of the Atlantic and her clothes were illustrated in French, British and American Vogue which defined her such as “dictator of fashion” because she elevated a textile (jersey, obviously) used for men's underwear to haute couture. Another merit of Coco Chanel concerns the elimination of fitting corset, in favour of a new sense of freedom in movement. Coco Chanel's signature was the easy elegance of her clothes, which didn't oblige women's body thanks to their loose-fitting line and to the great pockets, which allowed women not to need a handbag. At the age of 33 she was slim and she loved to be photographed while she was wearing her dresses with unembarassement; everyone was inspired by her. It's surprising to notice the fame and the wealth she reached considering her humble origins and the deprivation of her childhood. Gabrielle Chanel was born in 1883 in a poorhouse in France. Her family was really poor and made up by her mother Jeanne Dévolle, who died because of tubercolosis, her father Albert Chanel, who was a peddler, and her four brothers and sisters. After her mother's death, Coco and her three sisters were sent at Aubazione, an orphanage, and it cause to Coco a deep pain, which generated her rebellion. She thought she was died, only at the age of 12. Chanel was obliged to go to school and also to seam the hems of bed sheets. Certainly she developed her skill as a seamstress, as well as her strong behaviour at Aubazine. Aubazine's stark athmosphere, its unadorned walls and black doors, probably, had inspired Chanel dresses' palette, as well as the moon and the star print, which feature in the Maltese Cross, a jewel of her collection. Moreover, the double C of Coco Chanel's logo reminds the geometricpatterns of Aubazine's windows. During her childhood she did a lot of sport exercice, which continued throughuot her life, thanks to her slim figure. At the end of her life, she designed also an athletic dress shoe, which can be considered Nike's forerunner. As regards her nickname Coco, it derives from the numbers she performed in Moulins “Ko Ko Ri Ko” and “Qui qu'a vu Coco dans l'Trocadero” In 1904 she was wprking in a tailoring shop, when a French textil heir and horse-owner, Etienne Balsan, entered in. Coco Chanel moved into his castle in Royallieu a year later and he became the first of a series of lover, who supported and financied her. Howeve, Balsan's official mistress was Emilienne d'Aleçon, while the provincial Coco became his “playmate mistress” and she accepted this situation. She must dine with the staff however, she had access to Balsan's stables and she became an expert horsewoman. At races and parties, Chanel was entoured by aristocrats who wore hourglass silhouette, the must of the period, that she hated, as well as the oversized hats. So, in contrast to them, she wore jackets made for her by a local tailor and a school-girl style suit with a sporty aesthetic. At races, she wore hats, which were so much appreciated by Balsan's lady friends, who asked Chanel to trim their own hats. During a fox hunt, she met Arthur “Boy” Capel, and her fortune improved further, in fact he was a rich English businessman, who encouraged her to become a millner in Paris. Paris, global financial center and art's capital, at the same time. This is the context in which Chanel would worked, entoured by artists who came from all over the world, and also where she met Picasso and Dalì. At the beginning of her career, she bought straw at the Galeries Lafayette “for pennies”, with which she realized beautiful hats. In 1910 she opened Chanel Modes, placed near the Hotel Ritz, whose wealthy guests became her clients, as well as the women who shopped in the Maison Worth. But Worth's style is now surpassed by Paul Poiret's exoticism and orientalism. Thanks to Boy, she could open a boutique in Deauville, where she realized and sold easy-fitting clothes. When the First World War broke out, her dresses' production suited the new mood of austerity and the need to be practical, not elegant. Her costumers were aristocratic ladies, but, among them, there was also the Comédie-Française actress Cécile Sorel, whose imagewith Coco Chanel's clothes was published on Vogue. Another Chanel's success concerns the Biarritz collection, a new revolutionary line produced only with tailored jersey, which was made up by a rendigote with a skirt, a straight tunic featuring a bow, a chemise dress published on Harper's Bazaar and, finally, a V-neck dress. In 1916 and 1917, Vogue's pages Chanel's painterly use of color with humble jersey. She has always been associated to a neutral palette of white, beige and gray; but her dresses included also colors such as lipstick red, bordeaux and cerise. Chanel's best costumers were now Spanish aristocrats who spent their holidays in Biarritz and, because of Spanish neutrality during the First World War, “elegance was still permissible” among the wealthy women of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and San Sebastian. Chanel was really determinated, she had an high consideration of herself and “she looked like a queen” when she got out of her Rolls-Royce wearing her loose-fitting jersey dresses, which wew simple but also really expensive. 2.FASHION FORWARD In 1918, at the end of the war, Chanel relocated her couture house from Biarritz to Paris, at 31 Rue Cambon. It was the first of eight properties placed in the same street, but it was the most important, also because it housed her extravagantly decorated apartment, her minimalist couture salon and her design studio, where she pioneered a new way to conceive feminine luxury. In fact, she designed dresses with sumptuous embellishments- such as crystal fringes and metallic lace-, which were tempered by Chanel's slim silhouette. Women classified as the “most beautifully dressed” in Paris were always represented on Vogue wearing Chanel's models, which included also a majestic cape trimmed with beautiful furs. On 22 December 1919 “Boy” Capel died in a car accident and it was a great shock for Chanel, who affirmed <<In losing Chapel, I lost everything>>. Later, she had a relationship with a Russian emigré, the extremely handsome and poor Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, who will affirm he never loved Chanel, but she was a really important friend. Thanks to Pavlovich, Chanel know Ernest Bow, the perfumer responsible for Chanel's most lucrative production, her perfume Chanel N°5. She desired lauch her perfume since 1913, following the example of François Coty and also Paul Poiret, whose couture house, which launched also perfumes, was called Parfums De Rosine, in honour of her daughter. As regards the realization of Chanel N°5, Ernest Beaux had a central role: he crated a floral eau de cologne to honour Pavlovich's female relatives and, though, she loved flowers, Chanel explained to Beaux she wanted her perfume to be a mix of floral notes, unlike the single-note scents of the time. So, Beaux presented Chanel two series of scents: from 1 to 5 and from 20 to 24. Chanel was charmed by the number 5, composed of rose, jasmine, sandalwood and ylang-ylang. The most important period of Chanel's English period was the opening of a London branch of her couture house in 1927, following the Duke of Westminster's advice, in Mayfair. So, she could adapt her Parisian look to English tastes and traditions. The Duchess of York wore a Chanel wedding dress and a long list of aristocratic friends of Bendor became her clients. Fors this reason Chanel affirmed “With him I sam the acme of riches and rarity”. 4.GOLDEN AGE Chanel and Duke Dimitri were still friends in 1929 and he introduced her to his friend Samuel Goldwyn, an important Hollywood producer, who thought that the prestige of Chanel's name would improve his box office profits if she would have designed the costumes of his productions. Goldwyn believed also that this would helped Chanel by publicizing her brand worldwide. Chanel accepted his offer because of of the Wall Street Crush, which damaged French fashion industry and Chanel was obliged to reduce her couture's price. So Chanel arrived in Hollywood in 1931, the starting point of her golden age. When she returned back to Paris, she realized Gloria Swanson's dresses for the movie “Tonight Or Never”. The actress was slim and tiny, and when she gained weight Chanel was really furious, but she didn't know the real reason: Gloria Swanson was pregnant. So, Chanel ordered her to lose three kilos. No less. Chanel was disillusioned with Hollywood, however she had been a pioneer, because other couturiers, such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Balmain and Dior followed her example. So, after have left Hollywood, Chanel continued to produce garments for the theatre; she collaborated with Cocteau, Jean Renoir and Luchino Visconti. Her must successful theatrical costumes were created for Surrealist production: in fact, Chanel was a friend of Dalì and Picasso, she had an intellecual sympathy for artistic avant gardes, even if Elsa Schiaparelli was most closely associated with Surrealism. Her production of garments for the actress included also white pyjama trousers, which were also worn by herself. During the 1930s Chanel was part of a group of a well-dressed women, which included Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, who wore easy-fitting trousers. So, she created and wore loose-fitting garments, which were perfect to have a little bit of relax at Villa La Pausa, in France. In the entrance of La Pausa, Chanel ordered the architect to build a large stone staircase, which reminded her childhood in the Corrèze monastery. Chanel spent much more in decorating La Pausa than its purchase price. It was realized in beige as well as the furnishing and the piano, which must be matched. Chanel followed really closely her house's building and decoration, in particular of her bedroom, and a Vogue's article showed Chanel as a perfect tastemaker capable of entertain her guests. As regards La Pausa's gardens, they were perfectly managed, with olives tree and also “poor plants”, such as lavander, whose color showed an informal beauty. La Pausa influenced a lot Chanel's collections as regards colors: the light-blue reminded the crashing waves of the Mediterranean, the gold was linked to the bright Cote d'Azur sunshine and its starry night sky and, finally, the purple reminded French irises. Moreover Chanel introduced also new shapes and new fabrics in the collections of late 1930s: sliks, ribbons, velvets, tulle, lace and taffeta. Her dresses became more elaborated and her romantic mood culminated in 1939's Gipsy collection, really extravagant. However, because of the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Chanel was obliged to close her haute couture house. 5.THE COMEBACK During the Second World War, Chanel lived in Paris, at the Hotel Ritz and she was accused to have been in a relationship with a German Nazi. However, she returned on the scene challenging men who dressed women in restricting garments which she aborred. One of them was Christian Dior, who launched the “New Look” in 1947, which included corsets, voluminous skirts, wasp-waist dresses and sweetheart strapeless bodice, which were hated by Chanel. When she saw Dior's outifits, she decided to create again new dresses. So, she reopened her couture house at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris in 1954, when she showed a new collection, which was very different from the previous: in fact, the models were “celebrities” (and this is another Chanel's innovations); moreover, in contrast to the past, Chanel wanted only mannequins with real shapes, elegance, joie de vivre and health and, finally, they shouldn't be young, because for Chanel <<women become interesting after forty>>. Most critics were unhappy when Chanel showed her new collections, because they thought they were similar to them of 1930s, on the contrary American and British buyers ordered immediately her new garments. In the same year, Life, that was the most influential magazine at time, published an article in which Chanel was defined triumphal, as her comeback. Until the introduction of ready-to-wear models in 1978, a Chanel suit was haute couture and, though its simple appearance, it required a lot of work. Her suits were versately: they could be used during the day and also such as evening wear and they had pockets, so women mustn't brought with themselves the handbag. However, in 1955 Chanel produced a bag, named 2.55, for February 1955, which was made in jersey and soft leather; like a jewel, it was small, rectangular, it featured a shoulder strap with a gold chain and it was produced in Chanel's natural palette. This bag had a lot of success among women, like the stiletto shoe, launched in 1957, in two-tone, black and beige and with a low, thick heel. This two items became immediately other Chanel's signatures. During the 1960s, in Chanel House no change appeared: she didn't start produce miniskirts, the must of those years, on the contrary,she continued to produce suits, which were worn by Dana Osborn and Jaqueline Kennedy, for example. Furthermore, Claude Pompidou, France's first fashionable Madame la Presidente, popularized Chanel's knee-length bermudas, realized as an alternative to miniskirts. From the outbreak of the Second World War until her death in 1971 she lived in the suite at the Hotel Ritz. Every morning she woke up at 7.30 a.m. and after her daily toilette, she started immediately working. She was full of vitality, she used to sleep only few hours and she didn't eat much, in fact her weight was around 48 kilos throughout her life; probably her vitality came from the lot of vitamins she ingested. In January 1971 she died in her suit at Ritz wearing, obviously, one of her suits.