Coco Chanel Essay

709 Words3 Pages
History of Women's Fashion in the Twentieth Century Upper class people dominated fashion during the period from1900 to 1909. Only rich people enjoyed high fashion because the tradition of hand craftsmanship was slow, detailed work, and it was expensive. Therefore, most people could not afford trendy clothes. Rich people controlled fashion because fashion was a symbol of social status. The formal style was extraordinary, and ladies wore many clothes--for example, chemise, corset, corset cover, drawers, a flannel petticoat, and one or more cotton petticoats. About 1908, a new style of fashion began. The concept of the new style was the natural woman's figure. The new fashion expressed the new status of women. Women started to enter a variety of careers and new ways of living. During World War I, women took over men's jobs, and the traditional pompous clothes disappeared. After the war, the development of fashion was influenced by the new attitude of women. Chanel's Childhood Gabrielle Chanel was born in France, on August 19, 1883. The Chanel family did not have money, and they lived in a poor house in a narrow street. In the big cities of France, the industrial revolution had brought about a modern lifestyle, but the Chanels did not live in a modern city. When Gabrielle was twelve, her mother died, and her father disappeared. She had two sisters and two brothers, and she and her sisters went to an orphanage, and her brothers went to a farm and became child laborers. Gabrielle had been staying in the orphanage for six years. She was a fierce, pretty, and restless girl, and she knew that she was different from others. The Life Work of Coco Chanel Chanel was a woman of ambition and determination. She introduced simple, elegant, relaxed, and functional clothes that express the aspirations of women in the Twentieth Century. She borrowed ideas from
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