Arguably the most influential fashion designer of all time, Coco Chanel revolutionised the way women wore clothes and paved a new way for the fashion brand, capitalising on the changing times she was living in and her status as a fashion icon. With The London College of Fashion opening an exhibition of portraits of the designer painted by her friend and artist Marion Pike on tomorrow, Wonderland looks back on seven ways the designer changed the course of fashion history.

1. Trousers For Women

Although during the war women often had to wear trousers when working in traditionally male jobs, Chanel played a huge part in accelerating their popularity as a fashion item. While at the society beach resort of Deauville she chose to wear sailor’s pants instead of a swimming costume to avoid exposing herself, and the style spread quickly as her legions of followers emulated her. In the end, the designer regretted how her careless decision affected the course of fashion history. Aged 86 she said: “I came up with them by modesty.  From this usage to it becoming a fashion, having 70% of women wearing trousers at evening dinner is quite sad.”

2. Suntan

At the start of the 20th century, pale was in— skin that was in any way brown was associated with the lower classes. In 1923 Chanel made suntan a covetable fashion accessory when she accidently got sunburned while on a cruise on the French Riviera. On her return to Paris, her peers greatly admired her dark glow and quickly followed suit. The tan became a sign of wealth and beauty, a trend that has had lasting effects. By default, you could say we have her to thank for sun beds, streaky fake tan and orange hands too.

3. Jersey

Chanel was the first designer to use jersey, which at the time was reserved for men’s underwear. Simple, practical and comfortable, the fabric was the complete antithesis of what women’s clothing had previously been: flashy, excessive and based around an uncomfortable corset. This choice of material was also one of necessity: the war had resulted in a short supply of more expensive fabric, and early in her career it was an affordable option to buy in bulk.

4. Branded Perfume

In 1921 Chanel No. 5 was launched, the first scent that smelt deliberately artificial. It was made of unnatural ingredients, unlike the standard perfumes of the day, which were created with floral components. Although Paul Poiret was the first fashion house with its own scent, the designer missed a trick by declining to put his name on the bottle. Chanel ingeniously put hers on No.5, spreading the brand to a whole new market. Fast forward 90 years later and most major fashion labels worth their salt have their own scent, with perfume profits often exceeding those of the apparel.

5. Costume Jewellery

Again it was Paul Poiret who first used costume jewellery in his collections, but when Chanel introduced fake large pearls and glittering gemstones the trend really began to take off. Combining the real with the fake, the extravagant bling was the perfect accompaniment to her minimalist clothes. The designer thought it best to have a pile of imitation jewels then to stick to one or two expensive real ones, and her wealthy customers agreed. Although there was a market for fake jewellery previously, it was reserved for those who couldn’t afford the real deal.

6. The Little Black Dress

It’s hard to imagine a world without black as a foolproof outfit colour choice, but before Chanel the colour was reserved for funerals and widows in mourning. The fashionable reds, green and electric blues that her peers dressed in made the designer “feel ill.” “These colours are impossible,” she declared. “These women, I’m bloody well going to dress them in black!” In 1926, Vogue published a sketch of her calf-length simple black sheath and labelled it a “frock that all the world would wear”. A wardrobe staple was born.

7. The Chanel Suit

The designer was one of the first to borrow from menswear for women’s attire when she created her iconic suits. Consisting of a collarless boxy wool jacket with braid trim, fitted sleeves and metallic embellished buttons with accompanying slimline skirt, the outfit was the perfect choice for the post-war woman who was trying to build a career in the male-dominated workplace. The suit was favoured by celebrities like Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, and made its mark on history when Jackie Kennedy wore it on the day her husband was assassinated.

The ‘Coco Chanel: A New Portrait by Marion Pike, Paris 1967-1971’ exhibition opens tomorrow at the LCF Fashion Space Gallery.

Words: Eleanor Dunne (follow Eleanor on Twitter @eleanordun1)

The post SEVEN WONDERS: HOW COCO CHANEL CHANGED THE COURSE OF WOMEN’S FASHION appeared first on Wonderland.

Formidable fashionista, loving friend and surrogate grandmother; all these facets of Coco Chanel’s persona are explored in a new exhibition due to open at LCF’s Fashion Space Gallery on 5th September.  The exhibition showcases large scale portraits of Chanel by renowned portrait painter Marion Pike, who developed a close, personal relationship with the designer – you can see the two in their matching Chanel suits in the picture above. Wonderland spoke to the exhibition’s contributor and daughter of the artist, Jeffie Pike Durham, about the exhibition and the relationship between these two remarkable women.

What lead to your mother Marion to paint Chanel’s portrait?

She and Coco Chanel had a mutual friend, the producer Freddy Brisson, who just insisted that they meet. He was very persistent, and when my mother was in Paris in the mid 1960’s Freddy said “just go over to 31 Rue Cambon tomorrow she’s doing a fitting.” So she went and leaned against the wall and she sketched while Coco did a fitting. After about an hour Coco suddenly stopped what she was doing, walked across the room to my mother, asked to see the sketch paper – she glanced at it, and then she looked my mother in the eye and said ‘you have the hand of a real artist’. She put the scarf she was wearing around my mother’s neck and she said ‘we’re going to become great friends, could you come to lunch tomorrow?’ and within three days my mother had set up easels to paint Chanel.

Why did the two get on so well?

There was just this vibe like when you meet someone you just know you’re going to be friends. My mother said when she first met Coco Chanel she thought she was the ugliest woman she’d ever seen, but then she discovered all these facets of her personality. We don’t know and we can only speculate, but whatever clicked and whatever worked, they became friends.

What made you decide to exhibition these pieces now?

In 2011 I saw this book about Coco Chanel written by Amy de la Haye, a professor at the London College of Fashion, and she’d written a sentence about my mother being this American painter who was sometimes asked to do portraits of Chanel. My husband played the Freddy Brisson role and he said ‘you have to call her’. He persisted for about a month or two and finally I sent Amy an email telling her I loved the book and I’m Marion’s daughter so if you’d ever like to chat that’d be lovely. I sent her some pictures of the paintings and photographs of me, my mother and Chanel together. Within a month of me sending the email Amy flew out to California, I took her to see the paintings and she fell in love with the work. We talked and laughed and worked for five days looking at all my memorabilia and she decided this was the exhibition she was going to do, and we’ve worked on it for two years.

What are your memories of your first meeting Coco Chanel?

I went to Paris in 1968 because my mother wanted me to see the paintings. I got dressed to go and meet Chanel and all I had to wear was this little A-line dress that cut well above the knee. My mother said ‘don’t you know Coco has a horror of the mini-skirt?’ But I didn’t have anything else to wear so we went, and I sat the whole evening trying to pull down this dress – I was mortified. No-one spoke to me, but when we got home Coco and mother talked on the phone and Coco said ‘I observed your daughter very closely all evening’ and she said ‘between most mothers and daughters there’s sometimes tension, but I really liked your daughter, she looked at you with such kind eyes, would you bring her to lunch tomorrow?’

What do you think these paintings reveal about her?

These aren’t pretty pictures; they are searing portraits of somebody who was an ancient fear more than a fashion icon. When my mother did portraits she would tap into something and paint it. What my mother picked up and painted was what she saw but also what someone who sits for a portrait lets you see. People who had their portraits done told my mother the stories of their lives, and maybe Coco did, and maybe the paintings represent that.

Coco Chanel: A New Portrait By Marion Pike, Paris 1967-71 is on at the Fashion Space Gallery from 5th September onwards. fashionspacegallery.com

Words: Wil Oxford

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