Coco Chanel

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room to make dresses for her dolls (1). What a magnificent way to prepare for a life of style.
In February, 1895, Chanel¹s mother, Jeanne, was found dead, presumably because of her constant pregnancies (Chanel, A Woman of Her Own 9); her father, Albert, left for good, abandoning Gabrielle and her four siblings. They were placed into an orphanage in Aubazine. The three Chanel girls, Julie, Antoinette, and Gabrielle, remained at the orphanage for the next six years while the two boys, Alphonse and Lucien, became unpaid child laborers at their young age of eight. (10)
In 1900, Gabrielle left the orphanage at eighteen with her sister, Julie, and they were placed in an institution at Moulins by their grandmother (19). Antoinette would join them the next year. While in Moulins, she got her first taste of designing by working, with her sisters, in a tailoring shop on Sundays. The Chanel girls, known as the ³Three Graces² (25), received a good amount of attention from the army ...

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wearing, but she was often mocked for her extensive use of pearls or her stylish schoolgirl dresses. The world was changing, however, and Coco was on the right track.

When she moved to 21 rue Cambon in Paris, 1910, the world was ready for her. Her self-titled boutique was an instant hit. Crowds flocked to it, soon giving Chanel the capital successes to take over numbers 27, 29, and 31 on the rue Cambon (6). She was now living her life in the lap of luxury, a life she assumed was out of reach because of her childhood. The years of 1911 and 1912 were the happiest times in her life (Chanel, A Woman of Her Own 58). Her hats were seen publicly when Gabrielle Dorziat, an up and ...

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