Everyone will recognise the linked 'C' emblem of Coco Chanel, the first designer to introduce perfume to a fashion house, her Chanel No.5. One wonders what happened to nos. 1-4? In 1920 her perfume creator Ernst Beaux presented five scent combinations and she chose the fifth. She got that right.....it is said that every 30 seconds a bottle of Chanel no. 5 is sold!
My scarf is dark blue, decorated with the gold link jewellery which was synonymous with her name and the discs showing the famous Paris address of 31 Rue Cambon.
Coco's story is an interesting one. Born to a poor family, she and her sisters were abandoned to an orphanage; worked as a shopgirl, then as a cafe singer where she met wealthy men, one of whom setting her up with a millinery shop. She started designing simple sportswear in jersey, a breakaway from the corsets and restrictive clothing of previous ages. By the late 20's she had a successful couture house, a perfume laboratory and a jewellery workshop and was worth millions! World War Two broke out, she closed her couture house in 1939, but remained in Paris. Her name was then damaged by her association with a German diplomat. There were rumours of her being a spy. Who knows? Her story of rags to riches made her a survivor. She opened her couture business again in 1954 creating a distinctive look with her simple suit, quilted purse and 'the little black dress '. She died in 1971 but the name continued with designers such as Karl Lagerfeld creating for the house.
As I write this blog, President Macron is visiting Britain. He will visit Prince Charles at Clarence House and Boris Johnson at Downing Street to commemorate Franco-British solidarity in WW2 eighty years after General De Gaulle's BBC broadcast to occupied France to the Resistance fighters. I wonder what were the feelings of Coco Chanel as she heard that broadcast.
Mr. Macron is exempt from the Uk's 14 day quarantine as a 'representative of a foreign country on business". I am wondering what opportunities there are for me at the Foreign Office .....I have limited private courier experience to HongKong and Australia!
Busy Bee, Scarf Face!
Blog 84.
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