An Ode To Chanel......

When thinking of the word Chanel - two predominant thoughts come to mind: one of the luxury brand itself, and next of the woman who invented the brand, Gabrielle 'Coco" Chanel (1883-1971).

Both are to us an absolute constant source of inspiration. Coco herself with her never faltering determination to succeed (she worked right up until her death aged 87, never stopping), her own personal style (see below) and not to mention her dry, almost witty outlook on life. A favourite quote of ours from Coco would have to be.......

"A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future"

fantastic!!.....

Next the brand, Chanel, founded by Gabrielle Chanel in 1909, who reinvented the way women dressed giving a new simplistic sophisticated freedom from the restraints of the tight corsets and heavily layered dresses that were fashion B.C. 'before Chanel' (!), effectively inventing 'day wear' with women wearing trousers for the first time and not to mention as we all know and still love today, the little black dress.

But how could we talk about anything to do with Chanel without any mention of the genius who is behind the brand today. A recent quote from Hilary Alexander, Telegraph May 27 2010, referred to him (as we think most befitting) as

"fashions favourite Kaiser"

........who else other than Karl Lagerfeld - Chief Designer at Chanel and Fendi, Chief Designer and owner at Karl Lagerfled Couture, K Karl Lagerfeld, Lagerfeld Menswear, Karl Lagerfeld Parfums, Editor, Author, Photographer..............need we say more?

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, August 1883 - January 1971. We love her simple black bow hair band and her multitude of eclectic necklaces, so stylish and still so modern.

A detail shot of a piece we made clearly inspired by Chanel! We are loving the mix of the metals and textures of the stones with the black gros-grain ribbon. (for more photos of this piece see DECO HQ on our Flickr page)

A photo taken from one of our books "Chanel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art", of Yale University Press. This image is from the 1983 Spring Summer collection, a black silk crepe dress with trompe-l'oeil necklaces embroidered with gold seed beads, faux pearls coloured glass and coral. Note the opulent adornment of the simple black dress, such contrasts that work so well together.

Homage to Karl!