Coco Chanel: an intimate life by Lisa Chaney

In “Coco Chanel: an intimate life” by Lisa Chaney, it tells the true story of the rise of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel from poverty to money, starting her business selling hats to expanding and taking opportunities to sell more in fashion in the early twentieth century of Paris. 

In this work what surprised me the most was Gabrielle’s origin, she became an orphan at an early age and none of her family couldn’t/didn’t want to take on the responsibility of her and her siblings so she resided at a convent for all of her youth. And then, years later, she moved on to prostitution, and then became a mistress. What I most admired about Gabrielle was her hard work, she didn’t skip a beat and seemed to never take a rest, even after her lover’s tragic accident; also, how she took opportunities and turned them around, like during world war 1 and hiding in a basement overnight she sold pajamas to the other women hiding with her. What I admired the least about this entrepreneur was that she at some point came to taking up prostitution so she could have extra money next to her singing, when she could have instead continued as a seamstress. Very shorty Gabrielle came across failure at the beginning of her career, she was fully covered by her lover and wasn’t making enough money in her store, but the next day she pushed more production from her workers and more advertising and more sales.

Coco was very creative with her business, expanding from not just used hats to original clothing designs; she also knew how to grow her business with advertisements in fashion magazines and representation by famous actors and models. 

A part of the reading that was confusing to me was why the gave more depth to her lovers, because this story is clearly about Coco Chanel, but yet it was telling how her lover pushed to write books during the war, or her lover’s back story of his family.

How, Chanel, did you push yourself with your work, how did you find this motivation? And, why did you take up prostitution during that point in your life, why did you not go back to being a seamstress?

I think Chanel’s opinion of hard work would be that it is as intricate and detailed as fashion, there’s more and more layers to it. I share this opinion because once you think you’ve completed one thing with your work and you’ve pushed yourself then there’s more to that work to be completed.