Chanel

For other uses, see Chanel (disambiguation).

Chanel S.A.

Type	Société Anonyme
Industry	Fashion
Founded	1909
Founder(s)	Coco Chanel
Headquarters	Paris, France 135 Avenue Charles de Gaulle 92521 Neuilly-sur-Seine Cedex
Number of locations	310 (ca. September 2010)
Area served	Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas
Key people	Karl Lagerfeld, Creative Director Jacques Polge, Master Perfumer Alain Wertheimer, co-owner Gerard Wertheimer, co-owner Maureen Chiquet, Global Chief Executive Officer John Galantic, President, U.S. and Chief Operating Officer
Products	Haute couture, ready-to-wear, perfume, jewellery, accessories
Revenue	€ 6.9 billion (2010)
Net income	€280.3 million (2010)
Employees	1,270 (2010)
Website	www.chanel.com

Chanel S.A. (/ʃəˈnɛl/; French: [ʃa'nɛl]) is a French privately held company owned by Alain Wertheimer and Gerard Wertheimer, grandsons of Pierre Wertheimer, who was an early business partner of the couturière Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. Chanel S.A. is a high fashion brand that specializes in haute couture and ready-to-wear clothes, luxury goods and fashion accessories. In her youth, Gabrielle Chanel gained the nickname Coco from her time as a chanteuse. As a fashion designer, Coco Chanel catered to women’s taste for elegance in dress, with blouses and suits, trousers and dresses, and jewelery (gemstone and bijouterie) of simple design, that replaced the opulent, over-designed, and constrictive clothes and accessories of 19th-century fashion. The Chanel product brands have been personified by fashion models and actresses, including Inès de la Fressange, Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Vanessa Paradis, Nicole Kidman, Anna Mouglalis, Lucía Hiriart, Hope Portocarrero, Audrey Tautou, Keira Knightley and Marilyn Monroe, who epitomize the independent, self-confident Chanel Girl.

Historically, the House of Chanel is most famous for the stylistically versatile “little black dress”, the perfume No. 5 de Chanel, and the Chanel Suit. Chanel’s use of jersey fabric produced garments that were comfortable and affordable. Chanel revolutionized fashion — high fashion (haute couture) and everyday fashion (prêt-à-porter) — by replacing structured-silhouettes, based upon the corset and the bodice, with garments that were functional and flattering to the woman’s figure.

In the 1920s, the simple-line designs of Chanel couture made popular the “flat-chested” fashions that were the opposite of the hourglass-figure achieved by the fashions of the late 19th century — the Belle Époque of France (ca. 1890–1914), and the British Edwardian Era (ca. 1901–1919). Beyond comfort, Chanel's clothes applied the suppleness of to allow the woman an active style of life. Colour-wise, Chanel used traditionally masculine colours, such as grey and navy blue, to connote feminine boldness of character. The clothes of the House of Chanel featured quilted fabric and leather trimmings; the quilted construction reinforces the fabric, the design and the finish, producing a garment that maintains its form and function while being worn. The notable example of such haute couture techniques is the woolen Chanel Suit — a knee-length skirt and a cardigan-style jacket, trimmed and decorated with black embroidery and gold-coloured buttons. The complementary accessories were two-tone pump shoes and jewellry (gemstone and bijouterie), usually a necklace of pearls, and a leather handbag.

The great financial, commercial, and cultural successes of perfume No. 5 increased public recognition of the House of Chanel, desire for its haute couture designs, demand for its prêt-à-porter clothes, and enhanced the artistic reputation of the couturière Coco Chanel; and, in lean times, perfume kept Chanel solvent. In September 2012 a Paris court overturned a 2009 ruling and fined Chanel, saying the house had designed a vest that was a "slavish copy" of a crochet design by the local knitwear company, World Tricot.

History

The Coco Chanel era

Establishment and recognition — 1909–1920s

The actress Gabrielle Dorziat wearing a Chanel plumed hat. (1912)

Fashion before Chanel: The artificial bust, waist, and hips of corsetry. (Bianca Lyons,1902)

The Chanel Suit 2009: a tailored cardigan-style jacket, knee-length skirt, two-toned shoes, jewelry, and a leather handbag.

The House of Chanel (Chanel S.A.) originated in 1909, when Gabrielle Chanel opened a millinery shop at 160 Boulevard Malesherbes, the ground floor of the Parisian flat of the socialite and textile businessman Étienne Balsan, of whom she was mistress. Hence, because the Balsan flat also was a salon for the French hunting and sporting élite, Chanel had opportunity to meet their demi-mondaine mistresses, who, as such, were women of fashion, upon whom the rich men displayed their wealth — as ornate clothes, jewelry, and hats; Coco Chanel thus could sell to them the hats she designed and made; she thus earned a living, independent of her financial sponsor, the socialite Balsan. In the course of those salons Coco Chanel befriended Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel, an English socialite and polo player friend of Étienne Balsan; per the upper class social custom, Chanel also became mistress to Boy Capel. Nonetheless, despite that social circumstance, Boy Capel perceived the businesswoman innate to Coco Chanel, and, in 1910, financed her first independent millinery shop, Chanel Modes, at 21 rue Cambon, Paris; yet, because that locale already housed a dress shop, the business-lease limited Chanel to selling only millinery products, not couture. Two years later, in 1913, the Deauville and Biarritz couture shops of Coco Chanel offered for sale prêt-à-porter sports clothes for women, the practical designs of which allowed the wearer to play sport.

The economic imperatives of national military victory in First World War (1914–18) affected European fashion through scarcity of materials, and the socio-economic mobilisation of women — from objects of sexual desire and economic display — to productive workers. Besides active military service, the enforced and increased production of coal made men scarce in the factories and in the fields, where they were replaced by women. Until that time — the end of 19th-century culture — fashion for women was about the masculine display of conspicuous consumption, so, clothes makers and designers then had to produce practical and protective garments that would allow women the physical freedom required to do a man’s job — in factory and field — in order to supply the French war effort against Imperial Germany (1871–1918). By that time, Chanel had opened a large dress shop at 31 rue Cambon, near the Hôtel Ritz, in Paris; among the clothes for sale were flannel blazers, straight-line skirts of linen, sailor blouses, long sweaters made of jersey fabric, and skirt-and-jacket suits. Technically, besides its relative low cost, as a couturière, Coco Chanel used jersey cloth because of its physical properties as a garment, such as its drape — how it falls upon and falls from the body of the woman — and how well it adapted to the simple garment-design that allowed the wearer freedom of movement, physical comfort, and flattering aesthetics. Sartorially, some of Chanel’s designs derived from the military uniforms made prevalent by the War to End all Wars; and, by 1915, the designs and the clothes confected by the House of Chanel were known throughout France.

In 1915 and in 1917, Harper’s Bazaar magazine reported that the garments of the House of Chanel were “on the list of every buyer” for the clothing factories of Europe. The Chanel dress shop at 31 rue Cambon presented day-wear dress-and-coat ensembles of simple design, and black evening dresses trimmed with lace; and tulle-fabric dresses decorated with jet, a minor gemstone material; the high-quality confection (design, construction, finish) of such clothes established the professional reputation of Coco Chanel as a meticulous couturière. After the First World War, the House of Chanel, following the fashion trends of the 1920s, produced beaded dresses, made especially popular by the Flapper woman. Moreover, by 1920, Chanel had designed and presented a woman’s suit of clothes — composed either of two garments or of three garments — which allowed a woman to have a modern, feminine appearance, whilst being comfortable and practical to maintain; advocated as the “new uniform for afternoon and evening”, it became known as the Chanel Suit. In 1921, to complement the suit of clothes, Coco Chanel commissioned the perfumer Ernest Beaux to create a perfume for the House of Chanel, and he produced several échantillons, including the perfume No.5, named after the number of the sample Chanel liked best. Originally, a flaçon of No. 5 de Chanel was a gift to regular clients of Chanel — yet, the popularity of the perfume prompted the House of Chanel to offer it for retail sale in 1922; in the event, No. 5 de Chanel became the signature fragrance of the couturière and of her house of couture. In 1923, to explain the success of her clothes, Coco Chanel told Harper’s Bazaar magazine that design “simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”

Business partners — late 1920s

The success of the No. 5 encouraged Coco Chanel to expand perfume sales beyond France and Europe, and to develop other parfumerie — for which she required investment capital, business acumen, and commercial access to the North American market. To that end, the businessman Théophile Bader (founder of Galeries Lafayette) introduced the venture capitalist Pierre Wertheimer to the couturière Coco Chanel. Their business deal established the Parfums Chanel company, a parfumerie of which Wertheimer owned 70 per cent, Bader owned 20 per cent, and Chanel owned 10 per cent; commercial success of the joint enterprise was assured by the Chanel name, and by the cachet of la “Maison Chanel”, which remained the sole business province of Coco Chanel. Nonetheless, despite the great business success of the Chanel couture and parfumerie, the personal relations between the couturière and her capitalist partner deteriorated, because, the artiste Coco Chanel said that Pierre Wertheimer was unfairly exploiting her talents as a fashion designer and as a businesswoman. Wertheimer reminded Chanel that he had made her a very rich woman; and that his venture capital had funded Chanel’s productive expansion of the parfumerie which created the wealth they enjoyed, all from the success of No. 5 de Chanel. Nevertheless unsatisfied, the businesswoman Gabrielle Chanel hired the attorney René de Chambrun to renegotiate the 10-per-cent partnership she entered, in 1924, with the Parfums Chanel company; the lawyer-to-lawyer negotiations failed, and the partnership-percentages remained as established in the original business deal among Wertheimer, Badel, and Chanel.

Elegance and the War — 1930s–1940s

From the gamine fashions of the 1920s, the dressmaker Coco Chanel had progressed to womanly fashions in the 1930s, which was a decade of innovations in the confection of haute couture clothes at Maison Chanel S.A.; evening-dress designs were characterised by an elongated feminine style, and summer dresses featured scintillating contrasts, such as silver eyelets, and shoulder straps decorated with rhinestones. In 1932, Mademoiselle Chanel presented an exhibition of jewelry dedicated to the diamond as fashion accessory; it featured the stylistically memorable Comet and Fountain necklaces of diamonds, which were of such original design, that Chanel S.A. re-presented them in 1993. Moreover, by 1937, the House of Chanel had expanded the range of its clothes to more women, and presented prêt-à-porter clothes designed, cut, and confected especially for the petite woman. Among fashion designers, wherein rag-trade originality is in the dress-making technique — design, cut, and confection — only the haute couture created by the avant-garde Elsa Schiaparelli could compete with the clothes of Coco Chanel.

Chanel’s spymaster:
General Walter Schellenberg
Chief of the Sicherheitsdienst.

During the Second World War (1939–45), Coco Chanel closed shop at Maison Chanel — leaving only jewellry and parfumerie for sale — and moved the Hôtel Ritz Paris, where she resided with her boyfriend, Hans Günther von Dincklage, a Nazi intelligence officer. Upon conquering France in June of 1940, the Nazis established a Parisian occupation-headquarters in the Hôtel Meurice, on the rue de la Rivoli, opposite the Louvre Museum, and just around the corner from the fashionable Maison Chanel S.A., at 31 rue Cambon. Meanwhile, because of the Nazi occupation’s official anti-Semitism, Pierre Wertheimer and family, had fled France to the U.S., in mid-1940. Later, in 1941, Coco Chanel attempted to legalistically assume full and formal business control of Parfums Chanel, but was thwarted by an administrative delegation that disallowed her sole disposition of the parfumerie. Having foreseen the Nazi occupation policy of the seizure-and-expropriation to Germany of Jewish business and assets in France, Pierre Wertheimer, the majority partner, had earlier, in May 1940, designated Felix Amiot, a Christian French industrialist, as the “Aryan” proxy whose legal control of the Parfums Chanel business proved politically acceptable to the Nazis, who then allowed the perfume company to continue as an operating business.

Occupied France abounded with rumours that Coco Chanel was a Nazi collaborator; her clandestine identity was secret agent 7124 of the Abwehr, code-named “Westminster”. As such, by order of General Walter Schellenberg, of the Sicherheitsdienst, Chanel was despatched to London on a mission to communicate to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill the particulars of a “separate peace” plan proposed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who sought to avoid surrendering to the Red Army of the Soviet Russians. At War’s end, upon the Allied liberation of France, Chanel was arrested for having collaborated with the Nazis. In September 1944, the Free French Purge Committee, the épuration, summoned Chanel for interrogation about her collaborationism, yet, without documentary evidence of or witnesses to her collaboration with the Nazis, and because of Churchill’s secret intervention in her behalf, the épuration released Coco Chanel from arrest as a traitor to France. Nation-wide, the liberated French people avenged themselves upon the men and the women who had collaborated with the Third Reich’s brutal, five-year occupation of France; a shaved head was the mildest punishment for les collaborateurs horizontales, women who had expediently perdured the Occupation and survived the War with sexual prostitution. Despite having been freed by the British political grace of the deus ex machina Churchill, the strength of the rumours of Chanel’s Nazi collaboration had made it infeasible for her to safely remain in France; promptly, Coco Chanel and her German lover, Hans Günther von Dincklage, went into an eight-year exile to Switzerland.

In the post–War period, during Coco Chanel’s Swiss exile from France, Pierre Wertheimer returned to Paris, and regained formal administrative control of his family’s business holdings — including control of Parfums Chanel, the parfumerie established with his venture capital, and successful because of the Chanel name. In Switzerland, the news revived Coco Chanel’s resentment at having been an artiste commercially exploited by her business partner, for only ten per cent of the money; spiteful, she then established a rival Swiss parfumerie to create, produce, and sell her “Chanel perfumes”. In turn, Wertheimer, the majority capital stock owner of Parfums Chanel, saw his business interests threatened, and his commercial rights infringed, because he did not possess legally exclusive rights to the Chanel name. Nonetheless, Wertheimer avoided a trademark infringement lawsuit against Coco Chanel, lest it damage the commercial reputation and the artistic credibility of his Chanel-brand parfumerie. Sagaciously, Pierre Wertheimer settled his business- and commercial-rights quarrel with Mademoiselle Chanel, and, in May 1947, they renegotiated the 1924 contract that had established Parfums Chanel — she was paid $400,000 in cash (wartime profits from the sales of perfume No. 5 de Chanel); assigned a 2.0 per cent running royalty from the sales of No. 5 parfumerie; assigned limited commercial rights to sell her “Chanel perfumes” in Switzerland; and granted a perpetual monthly stipend that paid all of her expenses. In exchange, the astute businesswoman, Gabrielle Chanel closed her Swiss parfumerie enterprise, and sold to Parfums Chanel the full rights to the name “Coco Chanel”.

Resurgence — 1950s–1970s

Chanel haute couture: Cashmere suit comprising a sleeveless dress and a long, cardigan-style coat. (ca. 1960)

In 1953, upon returning to France from Switzerland, Coco Chanel found the fashion business enamoured of the “New Look” (1947), by Christian Dior; the signature shape featured a below-mid-calf-length, full-skirt, a narrow waist, and a large bust (stylistically absent since 1912). As a post–War fashion that used some 20 yards of fabric, the House of Dior couture renounced wartime rationing of fabric for clothes. In 1947 — after the six-year austerities of the Second World War (1939–45) — the New Look was much welcomed to the fashion business of Western Europe, because sales of the pretty clothes would revive business and the economy. The artistic and business challenges were upon Coco Chanel; despite being a pretty and very feminine fashion, the New Look reinstated the ornamental woman created with corseted fashions — like those of the Belle Époque and of the Edwardian Era — which Chanel had opposed at the beginning of her career as a couturière. Chanel met the artistic and technical challenges of The New Look by recognizing and acknowledging that the House of Chanel could be re-established, despite the changed, post–War market for haute couture she found in France.

To regain the business primacy of the House of Chanel, in the fashion fields of haute couture, prêt-à-porter, costume jewelry, and parfumerie, would be expensive; so, with rancour and haughtiness subdued, Coco Chanel approached Pierre Wertheimer for business advice and capital. Having decided to do business with Coco Chanel, Wertheimer’s negotiations to fund the resurgence of the House of Chanel, granted him commercial rights to all Chanel-brand products. Despite the past, the re-kindled Wertheimer–Chanel business relationship proved most lucrative, when the sense of style of the culturally perceptive Coco Chanel re-established “Chanel” as the most prestigious label in the fashion business. In 1953, Chanel hired and collaborated with the jeweler Robert Goossens; he was to design jewelry (bijouterie and gemstone) to complement the couture and prêt-à-porter fashions of the House of Chanel; notably, long-strand necklaces of black pearls and of white pearls, which high contrast softened the severe design of the knitted-wool Chanel Suit (skirt abd cardigan jacket).

The House of Chanel also presented leather handbags with either gold-colour chains or metal-and-leather chains, which allowed carrying the handbag from the shoulder or in hand. The quilted-leather handbag was presented to the public in February 1955. In-house, the numeric version of the launching date “2.55” for that line of handbags became the internal "appellation" for that model of quilted-leather handbag. Throughout the 1950s, the sense of style of Mlle. Chanel continued undeterred; the firm’s initial venture into masculine parfumerie, Pour Monsieur which was, and remains, a most successful eau de toilette for men. Chanel and her spring collection received the Fashion Oscar at the 1957 Fashion Awards in Dallas. Pierre Wertheimer bought Bader's 20 per cent share of the Parfums Chanel, which increased the Wertheimer perentage to 90 per cent. Later, in 1965, Pierre’s son, Jacques Wertheimer, assumed his father’s management of the parfumerie. About the past business relationship, between Pierre Wertheimer and Coco Chanel, the Chanel attorney, Chambrun said that it had been “one based on a businessman’s passion, despite her misplaced feelings of exploitation . . . [thus] when Pierre returned to Paris, full of pride and excitement [after one of his horses won the 1956 English Derby]. He rushed to Coco, expecting congratulations and praise. But she refused to kiss him. She resented him, you see, all her life.”

Coco Chanel died on 10 January 1971, at the age of 87. She was still "designing, still working" at the time of her death. For example, in the (1966–1969) period, she designed the air hostess uniforms for Olympic Airways, the designer who followed her was Pierre Cardin. In that time, Olympic Airways was a luxury airline, owned by the transport magnate Aristotle Onassis. After her death, leadership of the company was handed down to Yvonne Dudel, Jean Cazaubon, and Philippe Guibourge. After a period of time, Jacques Wertheimer bought the controlling interest of the House of Chanel. Critics stated that during his leadership, he never paid much attention to the company, as he was more interested in horse breeding. In 1974, the House of Chanel launched Cristalle eau de toilette, which was designed when Coco Chanel was alive. 1978 saw the launch of the first non-couture, prêt-à-porter line and worldwide distribution of accessories.

Alain Wertheimer, son of Jacques Wertheimer, assumed control of Chanel S.A. in 1974. In the U.S., No. 5 de Chanel was perceives as a passé fashion.seen as a passe perfume. Alain revamped Chanel No.5 sales by reducing the number of outlets carrying the fragrance from 18,000 to 12,000. He removed the perfume from drugstore shelves, and invested millions of dollars in advertisement for Chanel cosmetics. This ensured a greater sense of scarcity and exclusivity for No.5, and sales rocketed back up as demand for the fragrance increased. He also used many famous people to endorse the perfume — from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Tautou. Looking for a designer who could bring the label to new heights, he persuaded Karl Lagerfeld to end his contract with fashion house Chloé.

The post–Coco Era

The couturier Karl Lagerfeld, chief designer at Chanel S.A., and the Bolivian couturière Mónica Moss. (Monaco 2005)

Chanel couture by Lagerfeld: the Autumn–Winter 2011–2012 collection

In 1981, Chanel launched Antaeus, a new eau de toilette for men. In 1983 Karl Lagerfeld took over as chief designer for Chanel. Like Chanel, he looked into the past as inspiration for his designs. He made the point to incorporate the signature Chanel fabrics and detailing such as tweed, gold accents, and chains. Lagerfeld managed to keep what was signature for Chanel but also helped bring the brand into today's modern day fashion world. In later collections Lagerfeld chose to break away from the ladylike look of Chanel and began to experiment with different fabrics and styles. Today Chanel still holds true to the traditional tweed suits but the house also makes sure to stay modern and on trend with what is happening within the fashion world. During the 1980s, more than 40 Chanel boutiques opened worldwide. By the end of the 1980s, these boutiques sold goods ranging from US$200-per-ounce perfume, US$225 ballerina slippers to US$11,000 dresses and US$2,000 leather handbags. Chanel cosmetics and fragrances were distributed only by Chanel outlets. Chanel marketer Jean Hoehn explained the firm's approach, saying, "We introduce a new fragrance every 10 years, not every three minutes like many competitors. We don't confuse the consumer. With Chanel, people know what to expect. And they keep coming back to us, at all ages, as they enter and leave the market." The 1984 launch of a new fragrance, in honor of the founder, Coco, continued the label's success. In 1986, the House of Chanel struck a deal with watchmakers and in 1987, the first Chanel watch debuted. By the end of the decade, Alain moved the offices to New York City.

The company became a global leader in fragrance making and marketing in the 1990s. Heavy marketing investment increased revenue. Maison de Chanel increased the Wertheimer family fortune to $5 billion USD. Sales were hurt by the recession of the early 1990s, but Chanel recovered by the mid-1990s with further boutique expansion.

In 1996, Chanel bought gunmaker Holland & Holland, but failed in its attempt to revamp the firm. It launched the perfumes Allure in 1996 and Allure Homme in 1998. Better success came with the purchase of swimwear label Eres. The House of Chanel launched its first skin care line, PRÉCISION in 1999. That same year, Chanel launched a new travel collection, and under a license contract with Luxottica, introduced a line of sunglasses and eyeglass frames.

While Wertheimer remained chairman, Françoise Montenay became CEO and President. 2000 saw the launch of the first unisex watch by Chanel, the J12. In 2001, watchmaker Bell & Ross was acquired. The same year, Chanel boutiques offering only selections of accessories were opened in the United States. Chanel also launched a small selection of menswear as a part of their runway shows.

In 2002, Chanel launched the Chance perfume and Paraffection a subsidiary company, originally established in 1997 to support artisanal manufacturing, that gathered together Ateliers d’Art or workshops including Desrues for ornamentation and buttons, Lemarié for feathers, Lesage for embroidery, Massaro for shoemaking and Michel for millinery. A prêt-à-porter collection was designed by Karl Lagerfeld. In July 2002, a jewelry and watch outlet opened on Madison Avenue. Within months, a 1,000^sqft shoe/handbag boutique opened next door. A rumored merger with Hermès was not consummated. Chanel continued to expand in the United States and by December 2002, operated 25 U.S. boutiques.

Chanel introduced Coco Mademoiselle and an "In-Between Wear" in 2003, targeting younger women, opened a second shop on Rue Cambon, opened a 2,400 square feet (220 m²) boutique in Hong Kong and paid nearly $50 million USD for a building in Ginza, Tokyo.

Corporate identity

Logotype

The Chanel logotype comprises two interlocked, opposed letters-C, one faced left, one faced right. The logotype was given to Chanel by the Château de Crémat, Nice, and was not registered as a trademark until the first Chanel shops were established. Whether intentional or not, the interlocking C's of Chanel also highly resemble the personal logo of Catherine De' Medici...and new information has shed light on, but not really confirmed Catherine as an influence. Along with other makers, Chanel is a target of counterfeiters. Vietnam and China are prime suppliers. An authentic classic Chanel handbag retails from around US $4,150, while a counterfeit usually costs around $200. Beginning in the 1990s, all authentic Chanel handbags were numbered.

• 

  The logotype:
  The House of Chanel is represented by two interlocked letters-C, for “Coco Chanel”.

• 

  Perfume label trademark:
  The “No. 5 de Chanel” trademark and font were introduced in 1926.

• 

  Couture trademark:
  The small caps name and font were introduced in 1924.

Trademarks

One timeline measurement for Chanel presence in the United States is via trademarks registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). On Tuesday, 18 November 1924, Chanel, Inc. filed trademark applications for the typeset mark Chanel and for the distinctive interlocking CC design plus word mark. At that time, the trademarks were registered only for the perfume, toiletry, and cosmetic products in the primary class of common metals and their alloys. Chanel provided the description of face powder, perfume, eau de cologne, toilet water, lip stick, and rouge, to the USPTO. The Chanel and double-C trademarks were awarded on the same date of 24 February 1925 with respective Serial Numbers of 71205468 and 71205469. The first trademark application for the No. 5 perfume was on Thursday, 1 April 1926, described as perfume and toilet water. First use and commercial use was stated as 1 January 1921. Registration was granted on 20 July 1926 with Serial Number 71229497.

Products

Le nez de Chanel: The perfumer Ernest Beaux (1881–1961) created No. 5 de Chanel in 1921.

Fashion

Designer	Season	City	Locale	Presentation date	Line	Theme	For sale
Karl Lagerfeld	Fall–Winter 2010	Paris	Grand Palais	6 July 2010	Haute couture	A lion	On order
	Spring–Summer 2011			5 October 2010	Prêt-à-porter	An orchestra	March 2011
	Paris–Byzantium		31 rue Cambon	7 December 2010		A Byzantine palace	May 2011
	Spring–Summer 2011		Pavilion Cambon–Capucines	25 January 2011	Haute couture		On order
	Fall–Winter 2011		Grand Palais	8 March 2011	Prêt-à-porter	A frozen garden	September 2011
	Cruise 2011	Antibes	Hôtel du Cap	5 May 2011	Cruise collection	Outdoors	November 2011
	Fall–Winter 2011	Paris	Grand Palais	5 July 2011	Haute couture	Night-time Place Vendôme	On order
	Spring–Summer 2012			4 October 2011	Prêt-à-porter	Under the Sea & Florence	March 2012
	Paris–Bombay			6 December 2011		An Indian palace	May 2012
	Spring–Summer 2012			24 January 2012	Haute couture	An aeroplane in flight	On order
	Fall–Winter 2012–2013			6 March 2012	Prêt-à-porter	Quartz World	September 2012
	Spring–Summer 2013			2 October 2012		New energy	March 2013

Accessories

The company offers the 2.55 handbag and the Timeless CC handbag. They employ different locks and leathers; the 2.55 handbag is made of creased leather, while the Timeless CC handbag is made of smooth leather. The carrying chain of 2.55 is made of links of matte-finish metal, whilst other uses gloss-finish metal links interlaced with a leather strap.

• 

  The Chanel Handbag:
  The model 2.55, in quilted-leather, has adjustable double-chains, to wear it on the arm or at the shoulder.

• 

  The Chanel Handbag:
  Sporting a quilted-leather handbag, the Belgian Queen Fabiola, and her husband, King Baudouin, visited the Nixon White House, in 1969.

Fragrance

In 1924, Pierre Wertheimer founded Parfums Chanel, to produce and sell perfumes and cosmetics; the parfumerie proved to be the most profitable business division of the Chanel S.A. corporation. Since its establishment, parfumerie Chanel has employed three perfumers:

1. Ernest Beaux (1920–1961)
2. Henri Robert (1958–1987)
3. Jacques Polge (1978 to date)

Signature fragrance: Chanel presented perfume No. 5 to the market in 1922; Ernest Beaux created it in 1921.

Perfumes

• Allure
• Chance Eau Tendre — Jacque Polge developed Chance Eau Tendre to feature floral and fruity and notes, among them grapefruit, quince, hyacinth, jasmine, amber, cedar, iris, and white musk.
• Coco Mademoiselle — British actress Keira Knightley, current spokeswoman for the Coco Mademoiselle fragrance, portrayed young Coco Chanel in a short film advert directed by Joe Wright.
• Cristalle
• No. 5 — No. 5 The Film, is about the most famous woman in the world (Nicole Kidman), with whom an anonymous aspiring writer (Rodrigo Santoro) becomes enamoured; afterwards, a fragrant memory is all he retains of her. In 2008, the French model and actress Audrey Tautou became the visage of perfume No. 5 de Chanel. 2012 marks the first year that a man—actor Brad Pitt—represents a female fragrance. The bottle's stopper, cut like a diamond, is said to have been inspired by the geometry of the Place Vendôme in Paris.
• No. 19
• Les Exclusifs
  • 1832
  • 28 La Pausa
  • 31 Rue Cambon
  • Beige
  • Bel Respiro
  • Bois des Iles
  • Coromandel
  • Eau de Cologne
  • Gardénia
  • Jersey
  • No 18
  • No 22
  • Sycomore

Colognes

• Allure pour Homme
• Antaeus
• Bleu de Chanel
• Égoïste
• Pour Monsieur

Makeup and Skincare

Cosmetics are the most accessible Chanel product, with counters in upmarket department stores across the world, including Harrods, Galeries Lafayette, Bergdorf Goodman, The Bay, and David Jones, as well as its own beauty boutiques.

Fine Jewellery

'High Jewellery' was founded in November 1932. Chanel debuted 'Bijoux de Diamants' at her Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris mansion. In 2012, the company created a special collection to celebrate Diamants' 80th anniversary. Current collections include High Jewellery, Camelia, Comete, Baroque, 1932, Ultra, Bridal and Jewellery Watches.

Watches

The unisex design of the Chanel J12 wristwatches suits men and women.

The Chanel wristwatch division was established in 1987. In 1995, division presented a second design, the Matelassé. Although the Première and Matelassé wristwatches were successful products, the presentation, in 2000, of the Chanel J12 line of unisex style wristwatches, made of ceramic materials, established Chanel wristwatches as a recognised Chanel marque. To date the J12 line of wristwatches features models in four dial-face sizes: (i) 33mm., (ii) 38mm., (iii) 41mm., and (iv) 42mm.; the available features include the “whirlwind” tourbillon mechanism that counters Earthly gravity; chronographs certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres, and the usual bejewelled versions. In 2008, Chanel S.A. and Audemars Piguet developed the ceramic Chanel AP-3125 clockwork, exclusive to the House of Chanel.

The shops

Worldwide, Chanel S.A. operates some 310 Chanel boutiques; 94 in Asia, 70 in Europe, 10 in the Middle East, 128 in North America, 2 in South America, and 6 in Oceania. The shops are located in wealthy communities, usually in department stores, shopping districts, and inside airports. In Japan, the Chanel flagship store is in the Ginza district.

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  Asia
  The Chanel shop at the Prince Building, Hong Kong.

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  Europe
  The Chanel jouaillerie, Place Vendôme, Paris.

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  North America
  The Chanel shop, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills.

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  Oceania
  The Chanel shop at QueensPlaza, Brisbane.

The Chanel Girl

Model	Nationality
Stella Tennant	United Kingdom
Freja Beha Erichsen	Denmark
Saskia de Brauw	Netherlands
Ines de la Fressange	France
Claudia Schiffer	Germany
Abbey Lee Kershaw	Australia
Sasha Pivovarova	Russia
Heidi Mount	United States
Sigrid Agren	France
Baptiste Giabiconi	France
Magda Laguinge	Argentina
Coco Rocha	Canada
Anja Rubik	Poland
Kasia Struss	Poland
Natasha Poly	Russia
Bianca Balti	Italy
Magdalena Frackowiak	Poland
Toni Garrn	Germany
Lily Donaldson	United Kingdom
Joan Smalls	Puerto Rico
Julia Nobis	Australia

See also

• Belle Époque

• Pink Chanel suit of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

• 1900s in fashion

External links

• Official website
• "Style Pointes". Ballet News. 9 September 2010. 
• Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum
• "Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies of Gyas". Victoria and Albert Museum.