Coco Chanel

The more I look at the work of Coco Chanel, the more awestruck I become. I have posted about Paul Poiret here. I love the pictures of his work that I've seen. Coco Chanel is the designer who rendered him, and every designer that came before, obsolete. And, though she revolutionized fashion in the post World War One era, and there are many designers who have come along and also revolutionized fashion, no one has rendered Chanel obsolete.



I'm reading up on fashion history right now, and Chanel's work stands out. Her designs freed women, literally. The fashion and the rules regarding dress at the time, especially women of means, were restrictive and regimented, including a requirement to wear corsets for much of each day. Chanel's designs must have been in direct response to this. She drew long, slightly curved and sinuous lines, where prior to her, and for many decades previously, clothes were designed around an exaggerated s-curve that was idealized and not a naturally occurring female shape.

Towards the end of the video included here, there are modern runway and red carpet shots of her clothes. They seem very modern to me, and also very classic. Her color palette, at least for the designs shown here, seems very subdued, but I love all these clothes. I'll try, at some point, to do a better job of talking about why her fashion and her approach move me so much.