The Orphaned Girl Who Invented Chanel

[Music] but share the fantasy chanel number five chanel is one of the best known and most highly sought after fashion brands and with a revenue of more than 12 billion dollars a year that shouldn't come as a big surprise the massive french fashion house employs more than 28 thousand people across the world in over 300 stores and over the years their iconic bags have become a fashion statement that signifies opulence elegance class and luxury but how many of us are aware of the life of the woman behind the brand a true visionary coco chanel was ahead of her time and her ideas were unconventional to say the least though she preferred to offer various fictional versions of her early life the iconic fashion designer had a rather grim childhood but although she grew up in severe poverty she still managed to build a fashion empire that outlived her we can learn numerous important business lessons from her and her story is the epitome of the old proverb never let your past determine your future coco chanel was born gabrielle bonur chanel on august 19 1883 in salmore a town in western france although you probably wouldn't have guessed it when you see her later in life gabrielle's early years were anything but glamorous her family lived in abject poverty her mother was a laundry woman and her father was a peddler who sold work clothing and undergarments on the black market trying his luck in numerous places he lived a nomadic life traveling from town to town and taking his family with him even though gabrielle's middle name banura is french for luck she wasn't that fortunate in her early years at the age of 12 her mother passed away of tuberculosis and not being able to take care of his five kids her father put gabrielle and her sisters in an orphanage managed by nuns he never came back as the nuns had a strict regime living in an orphanage wasn't easy but there was also an upside here gabrielle was taught how to sew a skill that quickly would become very useful in her life when gabrielle turned 18 she was released from the orphanage and sent to a catholic boarding house in the town of moline's during school holidays she spent her time with her family where she gained more experience and fine sewing and she began working for a local tailor as a seamstress after a brief stand as a shop girl gabrielle also worked as a cafe singer for a few years it is from this occupation that her name coco came during her brief career as a singer gabrielle performed in clubs in bishi and molines where she was called coco while some say that the name comes from one of the songs she used to sing chanel herself said that it was a shortened version of coquette the french word for kept woman whatever version of the story is the real one from this point on gabrielle began referring to herself as coco as you will soon see the number one lesson anyone can learn from coco is always dream big just like we discovered in the video on walt disney the power of dreaming can have remarkable effects coco had a limitless mindset and she always set out to accomplish something great but would she also manage to do that [Applause] after pursuing a short singing career coco moved to dauville an upscale holiday destination in france's normandy region here she met a tien bassan an ex-military officer and a rich textile air after she moved in with him coco began designing hats but it wasn't before long that she met her new beau the wealthy english industrialist arthur edward boy capital he gave her a parisian apartment and financed her first stores with financial assistance from arthur coco opened a hat boutique in paris it was her very first store and she called it chanel mode soon enough her boutique was favored by the most famous french actresses of the era they helped to establish her reputation as a designer and it didn't take long before chanel's styles were to be found all over paris after coco's first store gained popularity arthur motivated her to start another shop in doville this was coco's first boutique she started out by selling a line of sportswear made of loose jersey up until then jersey was a material that was traditionally used to make men's underwear so this decision was unusual to say the least at the time influential wealthy women were desperately seeking relief from the prevalent corset styles of that era and coco's original use of jersey fabric to create a poor girl look attracted a lot of attention faithful to her maxim that luxury must be comfortable otherwise it is not luxury coco's design stressed simplicity and comfort her approach revolutionized fashion and women's relationships with their bodies and it was an instant success coco's limitless mindset truly set her apart from the rest of the designers at the time she was always modern and seized every opportunity and an important entrepreneurial lesson that we can learn from her is to find a niche in an existing market where unsolved problems exist coco had the ability of spotting a problem and then setting out to solve it she wanted to create a relatable product that resonated with the wants and desires of women like herself by having this solution-oriented approach she managed to fill a market gap that not many knew existed instead of constrictive tight corsets she offered luxury clothing for leisure and sport she made swimsuits for women which were a non-existent concept back then and her designs were unisex comfortable and yet slightly provocative women wanted to feel free and empowered something coco's loose yet fitting and practical clothes made them feel around this time coco also adopted her famous short haircut it quickly became a massive trend and coco got covered in various magazines news articles and other media platforms soon enough thousands of women were idolizing her not only her fashion but also her daring personality this is the third lesson we can learn from her never be afraid to be different just like her haircut coco's ideas for women's fashions were unheard of at the time and she often received odd stares but not one to let criticism bring her down she continued experimenting in these experiments that helped her gain the confidence to create original pieces for women that would take the world by storm as coco once famously said in order to be irreplaceable one must always be different during the roaring twenties mason chanel was established as one of the most influential fashion houses chanel herself was the icon with her modern style and strikingly fierce haircut her visionary wardrobe freed from constraints and tweaked with masculine accents created an exquisite allure that attracted many things were looking great but coco was ready to take her thriving business to new heights and in 1921 she unveiled her first fragrance chanel number five the perfume was created by ernest beau one of the most talented perfume creators in france who had previously worked for the sars to create the fragrance coco entered a deal with her business associate pierre wertheimer over the years coco had developed a close friendship with pierre and the idea was that his factory would produce the aromas however the contract only left chanel with 10 percent of the profits and a hefty 70 going to wertheimer and 20 to the department store owner theophile bader it was an agreement coco would soon regret chanel number five was a combination of jasmine and several other floral scents this made the perfume more complex and mysterious than the single scented perfumes that were on the market at the time that chanel was the first major fashion designer to introduce a perfume and then she replaced the typical packaging with a simple and sleek bottle also added to the scent's success soon enough the phenomenally successful fragrance became the financial basis of chanel's entire empire and with the perfume being a massive source of revenue she repeatedly sued to have the terms renegotiated one of those lessons we can learn from coco's mistake is to always think beyond when doing business no matter how attractive something appears at first always do your due diligence and make sure that you sign a deal you can live with long term but although coco was never able to renegotiate the terms of her contract to increase her royalties the fragrance nevertheless made her a considerable profit by the late 1920s the chanel fashion house was reportedly worth millions and it employed more than 2 000 people not only in coco's couture house but also in a perfume laboratory the textile mill and a jewelry workshop by 1935 coco was at the height of her fame at that time she employed four thousand workers and owned five boutiques at rue kombon the heart of fashion in paris then the second world war began and with it came a period of silence by the time world war ii began coco had been a public figure for several decades already but she remained a compulsively secretive woman nonetheless and as it turned out later she had much to be secretive about after the war coco did her utmost to cover her tracks and while her official biography states that she immediately closed her couture house and withdrew to the shores of lake geneva where she lived for 15 years on the royalties of her perfumes the reality was quite different although coco did close her famous couture house once the french capital was occupied by the nazis her perfume boutique stayed open so that german soldiers could buy bottles of chanel number five for their sweethearts furthermore coco also spent the war in her suite at the luxury ritz hotel cozying up to her german officer lover minnie viewed coco's wartime love affair with the german military officer as a betrayal of her birth country and her brand was greatly affected because of it fast forward one five decades however and things were starting to look better again for a long time the stain of coco's wartime misdeeds lingered but at the ripe age of 71 coco decided to make her comeback by reopening her couture house when she reappeared on the fashion scene in 1954 her name still had disgraced attached to it by fleeing to switzerland and remaining on the down low for so long she managed to retain her mysterious appeal but the drama wasn't forgotten by parisians and the comments about her collection weren't as appreciative as usual in america however it seemed like people were more ready to forgive and forget and her first new fashion show event was extremely well received by the american press by the 1960s coco was back and better than ever celebrities loved everything she designed and the most prominent women of the era such as elizabeth taylor jane fonda and jackie kennedy were all dressed in chanel this goes to show that it's never too late to reinvent yourself and as coco once succinctly said you can be gorgeous at 30 charming at 40 and irresistible for the rest of your life for the next decade life was looking good for coco and business was once again booming but then came january 10 1971 a black day in fashion history coco chanel passes away in her suite at the ritz hotel after her death in 1971 chanel's couture house was led by a series of designers with carl lagerfeld being the longest and most influential one and while coco can be accredited with some of the most influential designs in fashion history carl definitely made the fashion house a global phenomenon the famous german designer became chanel's artistic director in 1983. he kept chanel's signature styles but also helped to modernize the brand and it was a guaranteed match because carl looks into the past as inspiration for his designs just like coco did i don't believe it's a good thing to say i design for this kind of way what may surprise you though is that chanel's current owners are nobody other than pierre wertheimer's grandsons elaine and gerard wertheimer took over as co-owners after their father zach wertheimer passed away and today they are two of the 10 richest billionaires in france over the years their wealth has increased in many times through huge acquisitions and businesses of which chanel is just one of the many elaine is the president of chanel while gerard heads the watch division in persuading carl lagerfeld to become chanel's art director has been one of their most important decisions dubbed the most discreet billionaires in the fashion world the wordheimer family keeps very quiet and rarely speaks to the press about their personal lives they never attend the opening of a chanel store in those rare times when they attend a famous chanel fashion event they drive their own car and sit in rows four or five the brothers are the third wartheimer generation to run the company and it does make you wonder how would coco feel about that this was the story of coco chanel and how she went from dire poverty to a pinnacle in society the trials of her childhood as an orphan gave birth to an extraordinary character daring free and ahead of her time she ruled parisian hot couture for almost six decades and she symbolized a true before and after not only in the way people saw fashion but also in how they saw women have you already heard of coco's history share it in the comments and let us know which of the five tips is your favorite i hope you enjoyed this video and that you learned something from it if you did then don't forget to check out our channel for more inspiring business videos [Music]

Channel: Business Stories

Views: 94,902

Keywords: Business Stories, chanel, chanel bag, chanel brand story, chanel brand history, coco chanel, coco chanel movie, coco chanel documentary, coco chanel story, owner coco chanel, coco chanel brand, coco chanel fashion, coco chanel bag, coco chanel life story

Id: 9JrPV0IKEMM

Length: 15min 23sec (923 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021