Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel / 1883–1971 / France / Fashion Designer, Businesswoman
Art vs. Fashion
A work of art is something that at first seems ugly and becomes beautiful. Fashion first seems beautiful and then becomes ugly.
Reported in “France: Dictator by Demand,” TIME magazine, March 4, 1957; accessible at time.com.
We don’t need genius, just a little skill and a lot of taste.
Reported in “High Priestess of High Fashion: Gabrielle Chanel,” TIME magazine, August 22, 1960; accessible at time.com.
Chanel on Chanel
In 1919 I woke up famous. I’d never guessed it. If I’d known I was famous, I’d have stolen away and wept. I was stupid. I was supposed to be intelligent. I was sensitive and very dumb.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
Re: Chanel’s friendship with Misia Sert:
In 1919 I woke up famous and with a new friend who was to give its full meaning to my success.
In conversation with Salvador Dalí; reported by Meredith E. Smith in The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dalí (1992).
Re: In response to the question who she dressed:
Ask me who I don’t dress!
Reported by David Downie in Paris, Paris: Journey Into the City of Light (2005).
I was a rebellious child, a rebellious lover, a rebellious couturière—a real devil.
Reported by David Downie in Paris, Paris: Journey Into the City of Light (2005).
Re: imitations Chanel dresses:
Thirty years ago, I went to dinner at Giro’s. I remember counting 23 Chanel dresses in the room. But I was sure of only one: mine. I found that a very pretty compliment.
Reported in “High Priestess of High Fashion: Gabrielle Chanel,” TIME magazine, August 22, 1960; accessible at time.com.
Re: Chanel’s rejection of the Duke of Westminster’s marriage proposal:
There have been several duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel.
Reported in “High Priestess of High Fashion: Gabrielle Chanel,” TIME magazine, August 22, 1960; accessible at time.com.
Fashion
There is nothing more comfortable than a caterpillar and nothing more made for love than a butterfly. We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly. Fashion is at once a caterpillar and a butterfly, caterpillar by day, butterfly by night.
Statement from 1920s; reported by Jean Leymari in Chanel (2011); originally published in French in 1987.
Fashion is made to become unfashionable.
Interview, LIFE magazine, August 19, 1957.
Fashion is architecture. It is a matter of proportions.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
Fashion fades, only style remains the same.
Widely cited; however, attribution unconfirmed.
Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.
Reported by Axel Madsen in Chanel: A Woman of Her Own (1990).
The best colour in the whole world is the one that looks good on you.
Reported by Natalie Bloom in Beauty in Bloom: A Collection of Beautiful Inspirations (2009).
Men and Women
As long as you know that most men are like children, you know everything.
Widely cited; however, attribution unconfirmed.
A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.
Reported by Jean Leymari in Chanel (2011); originally published in French in 1987.
Philosophy of Life
How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone.
Widely cited; however, attribution unconfirmed.
Youth is something very new: Twenty years ago no one mentioned it.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
Reported by Marcel Haedrich in Coco Chane: Her Life, Her Secrets (1972); originally published in French in 1971.
The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive.
Widely cited; however, attribution unconfirmed.
Some people think luxury is the contrary of being poor. No, it is the contrary of vulgarity.
Reported in “High Priestess of High Fashion: Gabrielle Chanel,” TIME magazine, August 22, 1960; accessible at time.com.
World War II
Re: Charles De Gaulle:
I wholeheartedly welcomed his eulogy of French valour, to which he attributed the liberation of Paris. Have you listened to him lately? He will soon be claiming that the Resistance has liberated the world.
Interview with Malcolm Muggeridge (then working for British intelligence, MI6), September, 1944; accessible at muggeridge.co.uk.
One should refrain from contempt for the baser specimens of humanity, for whom liberation amounts to shaving the heads of women who have slept with Germans.
Interview with Malcolm Muggeridge (then working for British intelligence, MI6), September, 1944; accessible at muggeridge.co.uk.
A major shortcoming of the Resistance is the outnumbering, before long, of the genuine warriors by camera-carrying midgets intent on leaving a record of their purported heroism.
Interview with Malcolm Muggeridge (then working for British intelligence, MI6), September, 1944; accessible at muggeridge.co.uk.
Q: . . . Which side were you on?
A: On neither side, of course. I stood up for myself as I always have done. Nobody has ever told Coco Chanel what to think.
Interview with Malcolm Muggeridge (then working for British intelligence, MI6), September, 1944; accessible at muggeridge.co.uk.
. . . I have learned to dissemble my true feelings. I have misled people, so many people, that I too could have worked in espionage.
Interview with Malcolm Muggeridge (then working for British intelligence, MI6), September, 1944; accessible at muggeridge.co.uk.
A: Your allies accommodate with Stalin, a mass-murderer. The Germans, on the other hand, fought against the mass-murderer, but are set on destroying civilisation. How, in these circumstances, can I be expected to choose between the two?
Q: Perhaps because those circumstances to which you allude have not always prevailed. For the first two years of the war, I remind you that Stalin was opposed to the Allies. Why did you not support us then?
A: My dear Mr. Muggeridge, during the first two years of the war, your Allies did not even exist. The fate of the world hinged on one man—a friend of mine, Winston Churchill. He, and he alone, stood up to Hitler. Sadly, though, Churchill has already lost the war.
Q: With great respect, he is winning the war, actually.
A: Far from it. Can you possibly conceive appeasing Stalin as a victory for Winston, proud of his forebears as he is? Winston is a dandy and a visionary. Unfortunately, in winning wars, principles are inevitably debased. That’s politics. As early as the 1930s, when Winston confronted Hitler on his own, he must have realised that, with war looming sooner or later, he would be forced to make compromises. Unlike him, I have steadfastly refused to make concessions that would undermine my ideals.
Interview with Malcolm Muggeridge (then working for British intelligence, MI6), September, 1944; accessible at muggeridge.co.uk.