Coco Chanel - the woman who marked the fashion

Coco Chanel -. Gentle woman, little black, Chanel No. 5. Success has become her. In love, she had no luck. She loved one man. For him, she was a lover though she longed to become a wife. His death plunged her heart into despair to the end of her days.

Successes and failures

Famous people are famous because of the success they have achieved in life. Professional success representing the realization of their path to their dream goal. Consistency and belief in one’s own ideals were the tools in making it a reality. Success is a relative term. It is not an end in itself, but the result of efforts made to achieve it. It can be said that success is the sum of a few moments of happiness and repeated achievements every day.

Success should not be equated with personal happiness although it often complements it. Famous people are just like us. They have their good and bad moments in life. They experience amorous elations and separations. They are by no means immune to the tragedies we all face. Some of them remain their hidden secret that only their loved ones know about.

Love at first sight

Coco Chanel was taking her first steps in the fashion world when she met Arthur Capel, whom her friends called Boy, in 1906. Arthur was enchanted with Coco and it was with his support that she opened her first store. In 1918. she was already at the head of a small empire employing more than 300 seamstresses. Love at first sight.

It’s love at first sight. “We didn’t exchange a word, just a look. He was handsome, very handsome, seductive. He was more beautiful than beautiful, gorgeous. I admired his nonchalance, his green eyes. He rode proud horses and was very strong. I fell in love with him, ” she confessed years later.

Attractiveas Coco Chanel described the Englishman was an experienced businessman. In his youth, he attended top universities. He rented an apartment in Paris On Avenue Gabriel. They settled in together. They decorated them luxuriously. Coromandel screens, black lacquer embroidered with gold. For the rest of her life she will not be able to do without this furniture, symbols of her love for Boy. She admired her lover because Boy was her lover. Athletic, playing as befits his position in polo, intellectual, businessman.

“He was the greatest opportunity of my life: I met a being who did not demoralize me. He was able to develop the unique in me at the expense of the rest,” she said. He changed her life. He took her to the theater, to the opera, and advised her on her reading.

It was thanks to him that Chanel step by step gained self-confidence. In July 1913, they spent one of their many romantic weekends in the fashionable seaside town of Deauville.

A seamstress without a fortune

Moments of happiness together were punctuated by moments of separation. She endured them hard. In addition to running his business, Boy did not neglect playing polo. Nor did he shy away from dining with the ladies of the upper classes to which he belonged. Coco Chanel claimed that she was not jealous, but in fact pride spoke through her. At the age of 30, she realized that he might never marry her. She was not the party for someone like him. A seamstress without a fortune. That would be a misalliance. “I could have married Boy Capel. I was destined for him. We were made for each other. He adored me. I loved it, too. He loved me and knew that I loved him, the rest didn’t matter anymore. ” As time passed, she realized that this love would not have its happy ending at the altar. No more dreams. She had to settle for the role of mistress. She threw herself into work to avoid thinking about it.

Financial independence

War broke out and Arthur Capel became liaison officer to Field Marshal Sir John French. The career was his. In July 1915, Arthur Capel was appointed as a member of the Franco-British Commission on the French and British. Coal Imports to France. Before he took up his new post he took Chanel to the resort of Biarritz. The heat of passion reignited their hearts. They made plans for the future. Boutique in Biarritz, the town where they gave vent to their desire.

New responsibilities brought Capel to Paris. Chanel also returned to him to be close to her beloved. Its stores are notorious. The chain of stores in Paris was profitable. She was able to return the money she borrowed from her lover. She became financially independent.

Coco Chanel felt alone

In May 1917, Boy published his memoirs in a book titled, “The Story of the Boy. “Reflections on Victory and a Project for the Federation of Government.” The book was successful in winning honors in the Times Literary Supplement. He often traveled to London to promote it. Chanel felt alone.

While she was suffering from separation he was frequenting London’s salons. He became known. At one of the parties, he met Diana Lister from Lord’s State. They got engaged and married in 1918. He had to inform his mistress. She accepted this fact with dignity without letting on how much he had hurt her. She broke down and cried for hours.

Mistress status

Boy’s marriage changed nothing in the relationship between them. They were made for each other and could not live without each other. However, she could not continue to live with him. She rented a furnished apartment near Alma, at 46 quai de Billy. Her choice was largely dictated by the decor. Mirrors in the alcove and vestibule, black lacquered ceiling and gold Buddha. It reminded Coco Chanel of happy times with Boy. Unofficially, they were a couple, even though Coco didn’t like her lover status. She had nothing to hide. Especially since she already enjoyed recognition in the industry. However, she loved Arthur and for him she accepted this state of affairs.

Editorial recommends, “As long as she doesn’t think, as long as she doesn’t go back to what happened to her.”

A life-changing tragedy

The happiness, even the illusory one, did not last long. In December 1919, a tragedy occurred that forever left a rump in Coco Chanel’s heart. That very year, Capela was killed in a car accident. The news was relayed to her by her lover’s friend Leon Laborde. Arthur had left Chanel the previous day for Cannes, where he was to meet his wife and spend Christmas with his family. A few kilometers before his destination, between Frejus and Saint-Raphael, his car’s tire burst. Capel suffered a fracture of the base of the skull.

She was in deep shock. Devastated, she went to the scene of the accident. The driver who took her there testified: “She touched the burned parts, from which the smell of burned rubber was still coming out. She sat on the side of the road and cried for hours. She had lost the only man she loved.” – This is how Coco Chanel’s driver recalled the death of her one true love years later. Although there were many men in her life, she loved only him. When he left, she threw herself into her work, and soon after became the undisputed creator and dictator of world fashion. The funeral was held in Frejus, but Coco did not attend.

“I was losing everything, losing Capel.”

Coco Chanel fell into depression. Until the end of her days, she considered Arthur the only man of her life. After the death of her beloved, she moved to the villa Bel Respiro in Garches, purchased in 1920. Her emotional state was very bad. Years later, she stated: “This death was a terrible blow to me. In losing Capel, I lost everything.” Coco also used to say: “Whatever one may say, there is only one woman in a man’s life, all the others are only her shadow.”

Coco Chanel died on January 10, 1971. in his 188-square-meter suite overlooking Vendome Square on the second floor of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. She was 87 years old. She worked on projects until the last day of her life, preparing a new collection that was presented after her passing. Earlier, Coco had ordered that no one should enter her apartment after her death, except for her two nieces and a cousin. Many men passed through her life, but the last years of Coco Chanel’s life were spent in solitude. She never married.

“I was losing everything, losing Capela,” she later declared.