I love Chanel as a brand, but more importantly, I’ve always been fascinated with the story of Coco Chanel: knowing her mother died when she was very little and her father drove her to an orphanage and left her there, and to start from such humble beginnings to become the world’s most iconic fashion designer, and build an empire at a time when there were no female designers.
She got rid of corsets, she cut all of her hair off, she did some amazing, iconic things for women throughout her career and I think that’s really inspiring. Even though there are lots of autobiographies written about her, I wanted to do it from the eyes of an illustrator. I wanted to illustrate her as a little girl in the convent, and when she first moved to Paris, and first set up her millinery boutique. The journey of her life – even if you’re not interested in fashion – her story as a woman is so inspiring.
What separated Coco Chanel from other designers was her originality and her sheer will to never steer away from the vision that she so strongly believed in. She designed, lived and loved with gusto. She never took no for an answer and she forged ahead with such self-belief regardless of the many obstacles in her way.
What separated Coco Chanel from other designers was her originality and her sheer will to never steer away from the vision that she so strongly believed in. She designed, lived and loved with gusto. She never took no for an answer and she forged ahead with such self-belief regardless of the many obstacles in her way.
