Chanel

Chanel ( , ) is a French high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear. Chanel is well known for its No. 5 perfume and "Chanel Suit". Chanel is credited for revolutionizing ''haute couture'' and ready-to-wear by replacing structured, corseted silhouettes with more functional garments that women still found flattering.

History

Coco Chanel Era

;Establishment and recognition (1909–1920s)

The House of Chanel originated in 1909 when Gabrielle Chanel opened a millinery shop at 160 Boulevard Malesherbes, the ground floor of the Parisian flat of the socialite and textile businessman Étienne Balsan, of whom she was the mistress. Because the Balsan flat also was a salon for the French hunting and sporting élite, Chanel had the opportunity to meet their ''demi-mondaine'' mistresses who, as such, were women of fashion, upon whom the rich men displayed their wealth – as ornate clothes, jewellery, and hats.

Coco Chanel thus could sell to them the hats she designed and made; she thus earned a living independent of Balsan. In the course of those salons, Coco Chanel befriended Arthur "Boy" Capel, an English socialite and polo player friend of Étienne Balsan; per the upper class social custom. Chanel also became mistress to Boy Capel. Despite that social circumstance, Boy Capel perceived the businesswoman innate to Coco Chanel. And in 1910, Boy Capel financed her first independent millinery shop, ''Chanel Modes'', at 21 rue Cambon in Paris. Because that locale already housed a dress shop, the business-lease limited Chanel to selling only millinery products, not ''couture''. Two years later 1913, the Deauville and Biarritz ''couture'' shops of Coco Chanel offered for sale ''prêt-à-porter'' sports clothes for women, the practical designs of which allowed the wearer to play sports.

The First World War (1914–18) affected European fashion through scarcity of materials, and the mobilisation of women. By that time, Chanel had opened a large dress shop at 31 Rue Cambon, near the Hôtel Ritz, in Paris. Among the clothes for sale were flannel blazers, straight-line skirts of linen, sailor blouses, long sweaters made of jersey fabric, and skirt-and-jacket suits.

Coco Chanel used jersey cloth because of its physical properties as a garment, such as its drape – how it falls upon and falls from the body of the woman – and how well it adapted to a simple garment-design. Sartorially, some of Chanel's designs derived from the military uniforms made prevalent by the War; and, by 1915, the designs and the clothes produced by the House of Chanel were known throughout France. In 1915, Chanel opened her very first Couture House in Biarritz, France. She had 300 employees and even designed her first line of Haute Couture.

In 1915 and in 1917, ''Harper's Bazaar'' magazine reported that the garments of La Maison Chanel were "on the list of every buyer" for the clothing factories of Europe. The Chanel dress shop at 31 rue Cambon presented day-wear dress-and-coat ensembles of simple design, and black evening dresses trimmed with lace; and tulle-fabric dresses decorated with jet, a minor gemstone material.

After the First World War, La Maison Chanel, following the fashion trends of the 1920s, produced beaded dresses made popular by Flapper women. The simple-line, 'flat-chested' fashions Chanel ''couture'' made popular were opposite of the hourglass figure fashions of the late 19th century – the Belle Époque of France (c. 1890–1914), and the British Edwardian era (c. 1901–1919). Chanel used colors traditionally associated with masculinity in Europe, such as grey and navy blue, to denote feminine boldness. Chanel clothing often featured quilted fabric and leather trimmings; the quilted construction reinforced the fabric, design, and finish, allowing the garment to maintain its form and function while worn. An example is the woolen Chanel suit – a knee-length skirt and a cardigan-style jacket, trimmed and decorated with black embroidery and gold-coloured buttons, often accessorized with two-tone pump shoes, a necklace of pearls, and a leather handbag.

In 1921, to complement Chanel's clothing lines, Coco Chanel commissioned perfumer Ernest Beaux to create a perfume for La Maison Chanel. His perfumes included the perfume No.5, named after the number of the sample Chanel liked best. Originally, given as a gift to clients, No.5's popularity prompted La Maison Chanel to offer it for sale in 1922.

In 1923, to explain the success of her clothes, Coco Chanel told ''Harper's Bazaar'' magazine that design "simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance."

;Business partners (late 1920s)
The success of the No. 5 encouraged Coco Chanel to expand perfume sales beyond France and Europe and to develop other perfumes – for which she required investment capital, business acumen, and access to the North American market. To that end, the businessman Théophile Bader (founder of Galeries Lafayette) introduced the venture capitalist Pierre Wertheimer