Gabrielle Bohheur Chanel and the Roaring 20's

The 1920's, the decade of the Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein and Al Capone was also the decade in which the hair dryer was invented, red lipstick became popular and fashion icon Coco Chanel was the "It" girl. More than that Coco Chanel was one of the greatest influences on the essence of what a modern woman has become: intelligent, sexy, fashionable, independent and, of course, unique.


She was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, became a seamstress and went on to be a singer at a cabaret. Her nickname "Coco" is said to be derived from a song she would sing and the french word coquette. Little did anybody know that her unyielding spirit would lead her to found one the worlds most iconic and successful design houses in fashion history.

The "flapper look"this decade is notorious for actually came from Chanel's "Garconne Look" which had a dropped waist and masculine influence. She took sailor outfits and dungarees and made them all her own. She revolutionized fashion by stripping it of the unnecessary extravagance of the past and replaced it with clean lines and simple sturdy fabrics used to make men's work clothes.

We really have her to thank for freeing us from the constraints of bustles, corsets and enormous skirts!

Spring/Summer 2012 has become a revival of the "flapper look."

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something,

 but to become someone. --Coco Chanel