39 Facts About Chanel

Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear.

Chanel is credited for revolutionizing haute couture and ready-to-wear by replacing structured, corseted silhouettes with more functional garments that women still found flattering.

House of Chanel 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 Etienne Balsan, of whom she was the mistress.

Two years later 1913, the Deauville and Biarritz couture shops of Coco Chanel offered for sale pret-a-porter sports clothes for women, the practical designs of which allowed the wearer to play sports.

Sartorially, some of Chanel's designs derived from the military uniforms made prevalent by the War; and, by 1915, the designs and the clothes produced by the House of Chanel were known throughout France.

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In 1915, Chanel opened her very first Couture House in Biarritz, France.

Chanel's had 300 employees and even designed her first line of Haute Couture.

In 1915 and in 1917, Harper's Bazaar magazine reported that the garments of La Maison Chanel were "on the list of every buyer" for the clothing factories of Europe.

Chanel used colors traditionally associated with masculinity in Europe, such as grey and navy blue, to denote feminine boldness.

Chanel's perfumes included the perfume No 5, named after the number of the sample Chanel liked best.

Success of the No 5 encouraged Coco Chanel to expand perfume sales beyond France and Europe and to develop other perfumes – for which she required investment capital, business acumen, and access to the North American market.

In 1932, Chanel presented an exhibition of jewellery dedicated to the diamond as a fashion accessory; it featured the Comet and Fountain necklaces of diamonds, which were of such original design, that Chanel S A re-presented them in 1993.

Later, in 1941, Coco Chanel attempted to assume business control of Parfums Chanel but was thwarted by an administrative delegation that disallowed her sole disposition of the parfumerie.

At War's end, upon the Allied liberation of France, Chanel was arrested for having collaborated with the Nazis.

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.

In 1953, upon returning to France from Switzerland, Coco Chanel found the fashion business enamoured of the "New Look", by Christian Dior; the signature shape featured a below-mid-calf-length, full-skirt, a narrow waist, and a large bust .

House of Chanel presented leather handbags with either gold-colour chains or metal-and-leather chains, which allowed carrying the handbag from the shoulder or in hand.

Pierre Wertheimer bought Bader's 20 per cent share of the Parfums Chanel, which increased the Wertheimer percentage to 90 per cent.

In 1974, the House of Chanel launched Cristalle eau de toilette, which was designed when Coco Chanel was alive.

Chanel removed the perfume from drugstore shelves and invested millions of dollars in advertisement for Chanel cosmetics.

Chanel used famous people to endorse the perfume – from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Tautou.

Chanel incorporated the Chanel fabrics and detailing such as tweed, gold accents, and chains.

In 1986, the House of Chanel struck a deal with watchmakers and in 1987, the first Chanel watch debuted.

Sales were hurt by the recession of the early 1990s, but Chanel recovered by the mid-1990s with further boutique expansion.

In 1994, Chanel had a net profit equivalent to €67 million on the sale of €570 million in ready-to-wear clothes and was the most profitable French fashion house.

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Chanel launched the perfumes Allure in 1996 and Allure Homme in 1998.

The House of Chanel launched its first skin care line, Precision, in 1999.

That same year, Chanel launched a travel collection, and under a license contract with Luxottica, introduced a line of sunglasses and eyeglass frames.

Chanel 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, Lemarie for feathers, Lesage for embroidery, Massaro for shoemaking and Michel for millinery.

Chanel continued to expand in the United States and by December 2002, operated 25 U S boutiques.

In 2018, Chanel announced relocation of its global headquarters to London.

The logo is commonly known to stand for "Coco Chanel" and has become one of the most recognizable logos in the world.

In 2022, Chanel donated €2 million towards Care and UNHCR, the money will go to Ukraine to help it during the Russian invasion.

On Tuesday, 18 November 1924, Chanel, Inc filed trademark applications for the typeset mark Chanel and for the interlocking CC design plus word mark.

Chanel provided the description of face powder, perfume, Eau de Cologne, toilet water, lip stick, and rouge, to the USPTO.

In 2018, Chanel filed suit in the Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York, alleging The RealReal was hosting counterfeit Chanel products on their website and implying to customers that an affiliation existed between the two.

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.

Chanel debuted 'Bijoux de Diamants' at her Faubourg Saint-Honore, Paris mansion.