Favorite Quotes from Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel

Fashion designer Coco Chanel, born August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France, is famous for her timeless designs, trademark suits and little black dresses.  Chanel was raised in an orphanage and taught to sew.  She had a brief career as a singer before opening her first clothes shop in 1910.  In the 1920s, she launched her first perfume and eventually introduced the Chanel suite and the little black dress, with an emphasis on making clothes that were more comfortable for women.  She died on January 10, 1971.

In addition to the longevity of her designs, Chanel's life story continues to captivate people's attention.  Chanel's own lifestyle fueled her ideas of how modern women everywhere should look, act, and dress.  Her own slim boyish figure and cropped hair became an ideal, as did her tanned skin, active lifestyle, and financial independence.  Throughout her career, Chanel succeeded in packaging and marketing her own personal attitudes and style, making her a key arbiter of women's taste throughout the twentieth century.

Here are some of her favorite quotes:

"A girl should be two things; classy and fabulous."

"Elegance is when the inside is as beautiful as the outside."

"Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance."

"Fashion changes, but style endures."

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself.  Aloud."

"You live but once, you might as well be amusing."

The Givenchy Legacy Continues...

Clare Waight Keller's couture collection for Givenchy fascinated on multiple levels.  

After the death of Hubert de Givenchy in March at the age of 91, Waight Keller thought it appropriate to make her fall 2018 collection an homage to the founder.  It wasn't her first such statement.  In what may be the most famous dress she will ever design, Meghan Markle's wedding dress, the designer drew inspiration from a 1964 dress photographed in Vogue on Givenchy's lifelong muse, Audrey Hepburn.  

At the core, the play of feminine and masculine the designer has identified from her deep dive into the Givenchy archives and which, despite her take on a more ethereal bohemian romance at Chloe, she has always loved.  The collection started with a strong shoulder that immediately took the fragility out of even the most fluid dresses.  She worked with bold combinations for the look of a modern day warrior princess.  

Of the house founder, Waight Keller said, "He believed in elegance.  He believed in chic."  She believes in the beauty of inner power, and wearing it on the outside.  The most inspiring aspect of her tenure so far has been her kid-in-a-candy-store glee at the atelier she has access to.  She seconded that emotion when two dozen artisans trooped out onstage at show's end.  The best is surely yet to come.

Hubert de Givenchy

Hubert de Givenchy, founder of the house of Givenchy, has Died at 91 at his home.

The aristocratic French designer dressed his friend and muse Audrey Hepburn in films such as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Funny Face." 

The French fashion house confirmed the news on social media on Monday morning, remembering the 
late designer as a "major personality of the world of French Haute Couture and a gentleman who symbolized Parisian chic elegance."

With his perfect manners and old-school discipline, Givenchy had a distinguished presence that colored the fashion industry for over fifty years.  A consummate collector with an impeccable eye for objects as well as the interior decoration of houses, he leaves behind a fashion house that defined the very notions of refinement and elegance.

Givenchy championed the concept of separates with his first couture collection in 1952 at age 25, and two years later became the first designer to launch a high-end ready-to-wear line.  Early in his career, he garnered attention stateside for his artist-muse relationship with Audrey Hepburn, with whom he also developed a close personal relationship, forging a bond between Hollywood and haute couture that still thrives today. 

In addition to Hepburn, Givenchy also dressed screen darlings of the '50s and '60s, including Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Garbo and Grace Kelly, as well as Jackie Kennedy. During that time, his name was synonymous with ladylike luxury. He made the simple crisp white shirt chic and was a master of the little black dress.

Givenchy is survived by his partner, Philippe Venet, his nieces and nephews, and their children.  His family plans a private funeral and requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to UNICEP in his name.