Coco Chanel

Shirley MacLaine as Coco Chanel. (c) sfgate.com

I just watched the first (out of two) episode of the mini-series,”Coco Chanel” that chronicles the life of the style icon, featuring Shirley MacLaine on DR1 (Danish channel).

And it made me think… Coco Chanel is especially known for her perfume Chanel No 5 and the little black dress. However, after watching the first instalment of this mini-series, it occurred to me that she was a woman ahead of her time. You see girls wear the boy blazer daily, I am sure. If you stroll down the streets of Copenhagen and come tell me you can count how many girls you have seen wearing the boy blazer with both your hands, I wouldn’t believe you.

Chanel was from a poor family. Her wealthy boyfriend Etienne Balsan didn’t invite her to dinner with his mother, because she wasn’t as wealthy as him, she did not wear the fashionable clothes of that time, but instead, she made her own! She may not have had the money for the right fabrics, but she had a passion to lean onto, and with rejection of the period, she used what she had and wore it with confidence. She used male attire that was worn by men on daily basis, it was something that she could easily get her hands on. And while people stood in her way blocking her, she walked in male sports attire as if nobody stood in her way.

Doesn’t this quote say it all?

picture source: costume.dk

“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.” - Coco Chanel

And someone? Her name says it all.