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At the convent in Moulins, nuns helped the teenage Gabrielle secure a job as seamstress. Charmed by the allures of city life, at the age of 17, Gabrielle left her seamstress job to pursue a career as a cabaret singer. She adopted the name of "Coco," feeling it had all the persona of a "cabaret
singer." Though a charming young lady, Coco Chanel was no Edith Piaf.
Penniless and very near destitute, Coco had a chance encounter with Etienne Balsan, a wealthy married French playboy, who would later finance Chanel's move to Paris and the opening of her first hat business. Later Chanel became a love interest of Blasan's friend, Arthur Capel. Capel was said to have been the love of the designer's life. It would be Capel who would finance Chanel's expansion from hats to clothing and would help extend her commercial fashion-line from Paris to the affluent coastal resorts of Deauville and Biarritz. Replacing the corset with comfortable and casual elegance, her fashion themes included simple suits and dresses, women's trousers, costume jewelry, perfume and textiles. Her successes were both progressive and far-reaching. In 1916, she opened an haute couture salon in Biarritz. Six years later, she introduced her, now famous, perfume to the world: Chanel No. 5, which remains a profitable product for the company to this day. She introduced her signature cardigan jacket to the fashion world in 1925 and her legendary, "little black dress" to women in 1926. Coco Chanel died in 1971, at the age of 87 in her private quarters at the Ritz hotel. -Greta St. James EX Vitals
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