“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.” Chanel to me is a fashion god, or maybe a fashion war lord against the movement that more is more. But, as I'm reading this quote, I find that is interesting that she only finds the colors black and white are meaningful to her. I understand her point of view in the era of World War II, and how she was raised in the church by nuns that where like super mean, but why the loss of color?
In my personal life color is everything to me, if the shirt is not in the color I want I don't get it, or a bag. But, let's be honest here, I love every color no matter what. But, to Chanel it seems like the loss of color was something beautiful, apparently no color is the best color. And, to me that seems like such a boring thing at times. Like really how lame would that be to only wear black and white all day. What do you do in the spring and summer, where the weather is screaming for color? Sorry, Chanel but that's the only stance I have against your fashionable views, color.
But, In the book there is also a mention of how she wants this push for minimalism. With this push she wants there is the birth of the Chanel suite. The Chanel suite was something revolutionary at the time. This look was born from WWII and the military, such as the pockets to keep your backup lipstick, and the boyish figure that it gave to the female form. This was a reaction, to the current style full length skirt and the dramatic tops with all the ruffled details that seemed to be growing.
And it's shocking to see how this would be the force to help influence other designers like Saint Laurent. Where, in his case he copied some of Chanel works, but she only looked at that as an act of flattery. This is also what I think is an important mini section in the book when she shows humorous side to her. Instead of getting angry at the situation, she blows it off, and also sees this that her work is going somewhere good too. And, as this section comes to an end there is also an interesting part inside of me trying to connect the references today's modern world.
Today, Chanel is a global power house, if not the fashion power house in the world. And that there are so many people that pull her designs as a reference for their work. Unless, you work at Zara then you’re just copying her, like is that the Chanel cropped blue tweed jacket from the fall and winter 2014 show, yeah I thought so. But, back to the real situation at hand, like this book almost seemed timeless when reading it. Because, of the connections I have with Chanel I have today, the house of Chanel was founded in 1909 so it's been over 100 years now. But, the house does not seem that old when it comes to the fashion. And maybe that's the essence of this book, that Chanel is timeless and that it's with her influence that fashion today will be forever timeless.
(A photo of Coco
Chanel working on her fall winter collection, in her studio.)
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