Coco Chanel
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel – My forever favourite fashion designer. I have read throughout the years many articles and books about her life, watched many movies and albeit some of her controversial past I indeed found her to be an intriguing personality; intelligent, revolutionary, unapologetic and brave.
It was, however, when I visited her apartment in Rue Cambon Paris few years ago, that I had a glimpse into her personal life. I was very intrigued by her eclectic taste evident in an abundance of spiritual and religious objects that she collected from all over the world. Dry wheat, a church cross, statue of Buddha, tarot cards, African totem heads, geometrical octagonal frames to name but a few. What stoke a special cord for me were the similarities I seem to have with her in the collections of such objects.
Feeling very much her presence, I imagine her here. Touching the cross from The Abbey of Aubazine where she was sent as a young girl, she tells me that the logo of her brand is from the Abbeys mosaic-stained glass.
She moves on to her tarot cards with her lucky number 5 on top of the tarot card deck, thereafter gently brushing the dry wheat she explains is for abundance; the Lions for her birth sign; the intriguing left hand from her friend and sculptor Giacometti; the Octagonal mirror inspired by Place Vendome and her inspiration for the famous Chanel Number 5 bottles. She invites me to have coffee and we both make ourselves comfortable on her sofa and I immediately think of her many friends that sat here: Elizabeth Taylor, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Igor Stravinsky, Salvador Dalí.
I am interested to know what she thinks of today’s internet influenced, fashion word. She tells me that she remains sceptical, vowing never to sell her collection online. She loves, though, the anonymity of the internet in discovering new ideas at the tip of a button, such as new ethnic embroideries for her Haute Couture Collections. She also loves to organize travel to remote lands in her pursuit of the spiritual and esoteric. At last, she confides in me that she is running a blog under alias, calling out various fellow designers on what she perceives as fashion crimes, under her famous motto:
«Fashion fades, only style remains the same.»
As I say thank you to my Coco vision and leave her intriguing flat, I am so much more aware of the house of Chanel and its famous creative directors drawing on her myth. Most of her personal collection items remain an ever-going inspiration and are to be seen in the fashion and jewellery designs as well as the design and names of the house famous perfumes.
