Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer of women's clothes and founder of the Chanel brand. Along with Paul Poiret, Chanel was credited in the post-World War I era with liberating women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularizing a sportive, and casual chic as the feminine standard of style. She is widely regarded as the greatest fashion designer who ever lived, thus making the name of Chanel iconic. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing, realising her design aesthetic in jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product. She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Chanel was known for her lifelong determination, ambition, and energy which she applied to her professional and social life. She achieved both success as a business woman and social prominence, thanks to the connections she made through her work. These included many artists and craftspeople to whom she became a patron.

Chanel

Chanel S.A. (/ʃəˈnɛl/; French: [ʃaˈnɛl]) is a French, privately held company owned by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, grandsons of Pierre Wertheimer, who was an early business partner of the couturière Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. Chanel S.A. is a high fashion house that specializes in haute couture and ready-to-wear clothes, luxury goods and fashion accessories. In her youth, Gabrielle Chanel gained the nickname Coco from her time as a chanteuse. As a fashion designer, Coco Chanel catered to women’s taste for elegance in dress, with blouses and suits, trousers and dresses, and jewellry (gemstone and bijouterie) of simple design, that replaced the opulent, over-designed, and constrictive clothes and accessories of 19th-century fashion. The Chanel product brands have been personified by fashion models and actresses, including Inès de la Fressange, Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Vanessa Paradis, Nicole Kidman, Anna Mouglalis, Audrey Tautou, Keira Knightley and Marilyn Monroe.

The House of Chanel is known for the "little black dress", the perfume No. 5 de Chanel, and the Chanel Suit. Chanel’s use of jersey fabric produced garments that were comfortable and affordable. Chanel revolutionized fashion — high fashion (haute couture) and everyday fashion (prêt-à-porter) — by replacing structured-silhouettes, based upon the corset and the bodice, with garments that were functional and at the same time flattering to the woman’s figure.

Coco

Coco, CoCo, Co-Co, or similar can mean:

People

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Maître Gims

Gandhi Djuna (born 6 May 1986), better known by his stage name Maître Gims, is a Congolese rapper and singer who has lived most of life and made his career in France. He is a member of the hip-hop group Sexion d'Assaut and also has developed a solo career with a major release, his solo album Subliminal.

Career

Gandhi Djuna, born in Kinshasa (DRC) with his brother, immigrated to France when he was just two years old. Growing up in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, he later moved to the 9th arrondissement and eventually the 19th arrondissement. Taking the name of Gims, he rapped at college with his friends of Sexion d'Assaut while studying communication and graphical arts. He also worked part-time as a courrier at night.

He recorded his first track with Sexion d'Assaut "Coup 2 Pression" and worked with JR in the Prototype 3015 duo project. He decided to add Maître to his name Gims and also used the pseudonyme "le Fléau" ("the Bane"). He also worked on a number of independent releases, and a mixtape La Terre du Milieu ("Middle-Earth")as part of 3e Prototype after taking Dawala as manager. In 2007, he also worked as producer, wrote instrumental pieces and released his maxi Pour ceux qui dorment les yeux ouverts ("For those who sleep with open eyes"). On the maxi were tracks with Sexion d'Assaut, rapper Koma (from Scred Connexion) and a singer Carole. Continuing to record tracks with Sexion d'Assaut at two Inch'All Star battles, he became a well-known French freestyler. He also took part with 3e Prototype in a new street album called Le Renouveau ("The Rebirth").

Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Otto Lagerfeld (born 10 September 1933) is a German fashion designer, artist, and photographer based in Paris. He is the head designer and creative director of the fashion house Chanel as well as the Italian house Fendi and his own fashion label. Over the decades, he has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art-related projects. He is well recognized around the world for his trademark white hair, black glasses, and high starched collars.

Early life

Lagerfeld was born on 10 September 1933 in Hamburg, Germany and is the son of businessman Otto Lagerfeld (1881–1967), and his wife Elisabeth Bahlmann (1897–1978). His father owned a company that imported and produced evaporated milk, while his grandfather Karl Bahlmann was a local politician for the Catholic Centre Party. His family belonged to the Old Catholic Church. When she met his father, Lagerfeld's mother was a lingerie saleswoman from Berlin. His parents were married in 1930.

Lagerfeld is known to misrepresent his birth year, claiming to be younger than his actual age, and to misrepresent his parents' background. For example, he has claimed that he was born in 1938 to "Elisabeth of Germany" and Otto Ludwig Lagerfeldt from Sweden, although these claims have been conclusively proven to be entirely wrong, as his father was from Hamburg and spent his entire life in Germany, with no Swedish connection whatsoever. There is also no evidence that his mother Elisabeth Bahlmann, the daughter of a middle class local politician, called herself "Elisabeth of Germany." He is known to insist that no one knows his real birth date. In an interview on French television in February 2009, Lagerfeld said that he was "born neither in 1933 nor 1938."