by Emily Mongan
Prolific fashion designer Coco Chanel is known for her outspoken, ambitious nature almost as much as she is for her revolutionary fashions and iconic fragrances. As the only fashion designer included on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, there’s no denying that Chanel’s energetic and free spirited attitude served her well. Is your life in need of a bit of stylish inspiration? We’ve picked out our 10 favorite Coco quotes to live by, so take note!
“Gentleness doesn’t get work done unless you happen to be a hen laying eggs.”
Chanel made a name for herself with revolutionary fashions for women inspired heavily by menswear and free from the corsets and restrictive styles that had been the norm of popular fashions. Her groundbreaking designs were certainly not the work of a meek or gentle woman – introducing the world to a new comfortable, liberated style took ambition.
“I can’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little, if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny and it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.”
Chanel’s first real fashion success happened on a chilly day in Deauville, France, after she fashioned a warm dress out of an old jersey she had laying around and wore it out for the day. After numerous inquiries as to where she bought the dress, Chanel offered to make similar dresses for a number of people. “My fortune is built on that old jersey that I’d put on because it was cold in Deauville,” Chanel once said.
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”
While many of Chanel’s early designs were revolutionary for their nontraditional, menswear inspired style, the designer made it known that she didn’t see a point in trying to keep breaking new ground as her career progressed. “One cannot be forever innovating. I want to create classics,” she is quoted as saying.
“Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.”
In the 1920s, Chanel revolutionized the game again by introducing the world to the little black dress, and turning a color typically associated with morning into a symbol of elegance, sexiness and evening wear.
“You live but once; you might as well be amusing.”
Chanel’s impact as a designer wasn’t confined to just women’s fashion. She designed costumes for the Ballet Russes in Paris, as well as close friend Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée, and became well known in the Paris literary and art worlds for her friendships with many notable Parisians including Pablo Picasso.
“A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.”
Chanel introduced the her first perfume, the iconic Chanel No. 5, in 1921. It remains popular to this day, and is one of the best selling perfumes in the world. Chanel explained her interest in perfume by saying it is “the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion. . . . that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.”
“Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.”
Talk about taking possession of the future – Chanel opened her first shop while she was in her 20s after learning how to sew from the nuns in the orphanage where she spent her childhood. By the 1920s Chanel’s business was thriving, and she herself became an icon with her bob haircut, tan, and elegant and modern style.
“As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!”
While Chanel had several notable relationships during her life – including ones with Etienne Balsan and Arthur Capel, who were instrumental in helping her start her business – the designer never married. She’s quoted as saying “I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.”
“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”
Coco Chanel made herself a household name by introducing the world to a style of fashion and fragrance unlike any other. Chanel’s fashion designs, personal style and personality were one of a kind, and she was well aware of that. In response to marriage proposal from the Duke of Westminster, who she met aboard his yacht in 1923, Coco said “there have been several Duchesses of Westminster—but there is only one Chanel!” You were right about that, Coco.
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
Truer words have never been spoken from the designer, whose designs and personality transcended fashion and helped her become a cultural icon. Although she died in 1971, Chanel’s brand continues to put out fashions and fragrances, inspiring a new generation of women to be as elegant and fearless as the woman who began it all.