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| Photograph by Irving Penn. Published in Vogue, November 2007. |
At the center of Coco Chanel’s 1932 Bijoux de Diamants jewelry collection is the Comète, a spectacular 649-diamond collar in the form of a shooting star. Despite its obvious opulence, a perfect purity of line keeps it from being flashy and, moreover, makes it as chic today as it was way back when. At the opposite end of Mlle Chanel’s style spectrum is the humble Little Black Dress, as pure and simple and unostentatious as chic can be. Together, they epitomize Chanel’s unique blend of luxury and restraint—a potent dichotomy that has become a near-universal style template for women across the globe and down the decades. “A woman can be overdressed, never over-elegant,”[1] Coco herself once said.
“With a black sweater and ten rows of pearls,”
[2] as the postwar couturier Christian Dior once observed, Mlle Chanel revolutionized the way we dress. Paul Poiret, an early rival, was not so kind: “Poverty deluxe,”
[3] he called the youthful, pared-down look that transformed women from overblown Belle Époque belles into sleek, bobbed-hair, modern women.
First Vogue, 1916
February 1
Vogue Covers - 27
Karl Lagerfeld 1983—present /
Hervé Leger, Marianne Oudin, and Eva Campocasso 1982—1983 /
Philippe Guibourgé 1982 /
Jean Cazaubon and Yvonne Dudel Couture, 1974—1982 /
Ramon Esparza Couture, 1973 /
Gaston Berthelot Couture, 1971—1973 /
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel Couture, 1908—1971
HISTORY
1908
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel sets up a millinery shop in the Paris apartment of her lover, the racehorse enthusiast Étienne Balsan. Ladies flock to 160 boulevard Malesherbes for her chic hats.
1910
Backed by her new beau, Arthur “Boy” Capel, Coco establishes Chanel Modes, a millinery salon at 21 rue Cambon. In coming years, the house will expand to take over numbers 27, 29, and 31. Gabrielle Chanel is licensed as a modiste, or designer of women’s fashions. Her hats are featured in the Parisian illustrated magazines, and photographed on leading stage actresses. At the Longchamp races, Coco creates a stir in the first incarnation of the Chanel suit. She later calls her signature garment the “fashion statement of the century.”
1913
Gabrielle Chanel opens a namesake boutique selling hats and women’s clothing in Deauville, a seaside racing resort. She is seen wearing a white camellia—the symbol of a courtesan—later to become a signature motif. Chanel coats are some of “What Fashionable Folk Are Wearing at Deauville,” The New York Times reports.
1914
Paris’s elite flee the city at the outbreak of World War I, many arriving in Deauville having left their wardrobes behind. Sales of Chanel’s casual, sporty togs spike as women take on more active wartime roles. Women’s Wear predicts “a great success”[13] for her new sweaters of wool jersey. The chemise dress makes its first appearance.
1915
Chanel-Biarritz, a couture salon, open in the coastal town in southwestern France.
1916
Chanel buys a large stock of surplus jersey from textile maker Rodier and whips it into chic belted coats and skirts in a daring, ankle-baring length. February: Chanel’s sports suits appear in American Vogue for the first time. Copies of the suits—called vareuses, or tunic-smocks—are soon seen in American department stores. Her first couture collection debuts in fall.
1917
Two-piece suits, worn with wide sailor-collared blouses, feature large pockets. In contrast to the elaborate coiffures of the day, Chanel gives herself a chic bob—one of the first notable women to do so. The maison has expanded to five workrooms.
1918
Chanel makes a fortune off her fur-trimmed pieces (due to wartime shortages, she uses beaver and rabbit). Women’s lounging pajamas introduced, as well as cardigans and twinsets. Matching coat linings and blouses, later to become a Chanel signature, appear for the first time.
1919
Gabrielle Chanel is officially registered as a couturière, with a maison de couture established at 31 rue Cambon, Paris. Exquisite evening gowns of jet-beaded Chantilly lace and black velvet capes trimmed with ostrich are the height of chic. Chanel later remarks that 1919 was the year “I woke up famous.”
1920
A romance with Russia’s Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich will inspire a three-year period of Russian folkloric patterns. Exquisite handiwork is done by Dmitri’s sister, the exiled grand duchess Marie Pavlovna; she establishes the embroidery workshop Kitmir, which furnishes designs for the spring 1922 collection—notably, the Roubachka, a peasant blouse made in black crepe de chine. On her first visit to Venice, Chanel wears sailor-style bell-bottoms, sparking a trend for yachting trousers. Strolling the sunbaked Lido, the heat drives her to fashion a pair of cork-soled sandals, executed by a local bootmaker. Rouge Coromandel lip color introduced.
1921
The designer taps perfumer Ernest Beaux to create a namesake scent. She dubs the intoxicating mixture, made up of 83-plus ingredients, Chanel No. 5, after her lucky number. The jasmine-based perfume—the first to bear a couturier’s name—comes packaged in a sleek, cut-glass bottle designed by Chanel herself. Iconic double-C logo introduced.
1922
A Chanel blouse bears an embroidered, stylized camellia motif. Wide-leg beach pajamas introduced. Chanel No. 22 debuts. October: Maison Chanel’s distinctive square neckline is “contrary to the rule of most of the other houses,”[15] a New York Times report notes. December: Chanel designs stage costumes for Jean Cocteau’s adaptation of Sophocles’s Antigone.
1923
Cape-sleeved and Breton tops introduced. February: The New York Times reports on Chanel’s new sporty sweaters with horizontal stripes, made with silk or wool crepe. August: Hemlines are hiked.
1924
Parfums Chanel founded with funding from Bourjois cosmetics chief Pierre Wertheimer, who will produce the house’s scents. Wertheimer holds a majority stake in the new company; the founder of the Galeries Lafayettes department store owns 20 percent; and the designer herself holds only 10. (Over the next five decades, Wertheimer and his descendents will engage in a battle over the rights to the name Chanel; the Wertheimers will eventually gain control of the company at large.) Cuir de Russie fragrance debuts. Suntan lotion and Rouge de Chanel lip color introduced. Sets up jewelry-design studio with Comte Étienne de Beaumont as director. Pushes the craze for vrais bijoux en toc, or costume jewelry that looks real. Faux pearls, worn looped in multiple strands, are a hit. On a visit to London with a new love, the Duke of Westminster, discovers the virtues of tweed. August: Chanel leads the trend for dropped waistlines. October: Edward Steichen photographs Madame Varda in Chanel’s drop-waist frock of white crepe georgette for Vogue.
1925
Gardénia perfume introduced.
1926
Bois des Iles fragrance debuts. Chanel wears a pair of mismatched pearl earrings—one black, one white—and launches a trend. May: Edward Steichen photographs actress Ina Claire for Vogue in Chanel’s black tulle evening gown. June: Chanel designs costumes for Jean Cocteau’s Orphée. October: Vogue calls Chanel’s straight-lined, black day dress, done in the leading flapper, or garçonne (literally, “little boy”), style, “the frock that all the world will wear.” The Little Black Dress is born.
1927
Chanel London opens; the couturier offers styles appropriate for Ascot or court. Chanel employs Fulco Santostefano della Cerda, the Duke of Verdura, to design first textiles, then jewelry. His Byzantine white enamel cuffs with bejeweled Maltese crosses will become one of Chanel’s personal signatures.
1928
Tricots Chanel—later renamed Tissus Chanel—textile factory established at Asnières to produce knits. Chanel will later appoint the Russian poet and draftsman Iliazd as director. Tweed, woven in Scotland for the house, introduced. The walls of 31 rue Cambon, the salon’s new central location, are paneled with mirrors, enabling Coco to view shows from her private perch atop the staircase. October: Stateside customers clamor for Chanel’s mesh evening bags. Her one-piece frocks are popular among American college girls, says a report. November: Fans are back in style; Chanel’s come in satin, sequins, lamé, mousseline, or tulle, coordinated to match one’s evening gown.
1929
Inspired by soldier’s satchels, Chanel’s shoulder bag in black and navy jersey has straps for ease of carrying. By now, the house sells jars of face cream, astringent, and perfumed talcum powder. Accessories boutique opens at rue Cambon. June: Chanel designs costumes for the Stravinsky ballet Apollon Musagète, choreographed by George Balanchine. August: Coordinated hat-and-suit ensembles are a hit. October: Chanel’s capes and scarf-like capelets are among the season’s hottest fashions, according to reports. As longer tresses come back into vogue, Chanel offers ornamental hairpins of crystal roses and pearls on a shell, to be worn with matching jewelry.
1930
Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn taps Chanel, now the most expensive couturier in Paris, to dress Tinseltown’s leading ladies. Though the association will prove short-lived, she will design Gloria Swanson’s wardrobe for Tonight or Never (1931), and Ina Claire’s for The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932). Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich become clients. Lipstick comes in a gunmetal-gray case, stamped with the double-C logo. Poudre Tan bronzing-type powder introduced. Sycomore and Une Idée perfumes launched.
1931
Unisex trousers for women introduced. February: Hoyningen-Huene photographs Chanel’s spring-green evening tea gown, styled with a narrow rhinestone belt, for Vogue. April: Supple suits of Chantonel—a silk-and-wool shantung fabric made exclusively for Chanel—appear in the magazine.
1932
Cosmetics are packaged in black Bakelite. London textile firm Messrs Ferguson taps Chanel to design a range in cotton, including evening dresses. May: Chanel stages a benefit show of 130 looks—all in British fabrics—at the Duke of Westminster’s London apartments. November: Commissioned by the International Guild of Diamond Merchants, she designs her first fine jewelry with the writer and artist Paul Iribe. In the course of a month, some 30,000 visitors flock to Chanel’s private quarters to view the glittering Bijoux de Diamants, set in platinum.
1933
The Chanel camellia motif—as we know it in its present form—makes its first official appearance on a black suit with white accents. February: Time magazine makes note of Chanel gloves of 18K spun gold.
1934
Hoyningen-Huene photographs Chanel’s black satin dress with white plastron collar for the September 15 issue of Vogue.
1935
Chanel designs a Louis XIV look for the ballet dancer Serge Lifar to wear to Comte Étienne de Beaumont’s Grand Siècle costume ball. The house of Chanel is estimated to be selling 28,000 pieces annually to women the world over; close to 4,000 workers labor to produce Mademoiselle’s creations.
1937
Chanel again designs costumes for Jean Cocteau, this time for the productions Oedipus Rex and Les Chevaliers de la Table Ronde (star-to-be Christian Dior assists on the latter). July: Christian Bérard’s colorful gouache illustration for Vogue depicts the couturier, in triplicate. (“Chanel dines at home in printed pajamas, sweater, barbaric jewels,”[17] Bérard describes the central figure’s costume.)
1938
The Bijoux de Fleurs collection includes a translucent glass camellia necklace crafted by Gripoix. February: Chanel creates costumes for the Jean Renoir film La Marseillaise. June: Vogue’s André Durst photographs Chanel’s white tulle ball gown with lace bows. July: Vogue illustrator Eduardo Benito sketches beheaded mannequins modeling evening gowns by both Chanel and her Italian rival Elsa Schiaparelli, set in a Surrealist landscape.
1939
Chanel designs costumes for Salvador Dalí’s ballet Bacchanale, performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and Jean Renoir’s seminal film La Règle du Jeu. Pleated taffeta gypsy skirts introduced. September: Chanel poses with house model Muriel Maxwell for Horst P. Horst in Vogue. “Chanel’s eye rests approvingly on the pinched waist of her velvet Watteau suit,”[18] the caption notes. The salon closes its doors after World War II is declared; only the boutique at 31 rue Cambon remains open for sales of accessories and perfumes.
1940
Beige de Chanel fragrance launched.
1954
Parfums Chanel secures the rights to the Chanel name and all its products. Asked what she wears to bed, Marilyn Monroe says a few drops of Chanel No. 5. February: On the fifth, her lucky day, Coco stages a comeback at the revamped rue Cambon. Her simple suits and dresses, which echo the streamlined styles of the prewar years, lead many to proclaim the aging couturier démodé. However, Vogue embraces the look, running a lengthy profile on the “great revolutionist,” fashion’s “lone rebel.”[19] March: Vogue features Chanel’s new looks. Movie stars Grace Kelly, Rita Hayworth, and Elizabeth Taylor all soon sport the Chanel look. Model Suzy Parker becomes brand face and muse.
1955
Chanel Pour Monsieur scent introduced. The 2.55 quilted handbag with gold-chain-wrapped strap introduced; it is named for the month and year of its birth and will become one of the brand’s most enduring signatures.
1956
Chanel outfits actress Ingrid Bergman in a classic collarless suit for her role in Françoise Sagan’s play Tea and Sympathy, staged in Paris.
1957
Neiman Marcus honors Chanel with its Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, declaring her the most influential dress designer of the century. Two-tone cap-toe slingbacks, soon to become a brand trademark, debut. Parisian shoemaker Massaro will make them for decades to come. Braid trim, soon to become yet another Chanel signature, appears on cardigan jackets of bouclé and tweed.
1959
Jeanne Moreau wears Chanel suits—tweed, black with camellia accent—in Roger Vadim’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The iconic Chanel No. 5 bottle is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; it will later be added to the permanent collection.
1962
March: French actress Delphine Seyrig wears custom Chanel designs in the Alain Resnais film Last Year at Marienbad. June: Romy Schneider wears a wardrobe by Chanel in the Luchino Visconti–directed segment of Boccaccio ’70.
1965
Following Pierre Wertheimer’s death, his son Jacques takes executive control of the house.
1966
All-American model Ali MacGraw appears as a bathing beauty in ads for the brand’s bath product. July: Chanel bucks the miniskirt trend, keeping her hemlines at the knee. Couture’s grande dame will soon declare the short skirts “the most absurd weapon woman has ever employed to seduce men.”
1968
Rouge Hydrabase moisturizing lipstick launched; it will become one of the house’s top-selling beauty products. French actress Catherine Deneuve is tapped to be the face of the brand; Richard Avedon photographs her for a Chanel No. 5 ad that will run for nearly a decade.
1969
Beauty artist Dominique Moncourtois named international director of makeup.
1970
Chanel No. 19, named for Chanel’s birthday, launched.
1971
January: Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel dies at the age of 87. Two weeks later, her last collection bows to a standing ovation. Dress mannequins sport the requisite black hair bow Mademoiselle always ordered. The house is now owned wholly by the Wertheimer family. Gaston Berthelot is soon named designer of the house; his tenure will span only three seasons.
1973
Ramon Esparza designs the line for a single season.
1974
Jacques Wertheimer’s son Alain takes over the company. Cristalle perfume launched. Gabrielle Chanel’s favorite red lipstick shade is replicated and sold under the name Rouge de Chanel. Jean Cazaubon and Yvonne Dudel take over the design duties. Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Cheryl Tiegs is tapped to sell Chanel No. 5.
1975
The Chanel Beauté line launched.
1978
Ready-to-wear introduced; Philippe Guibourgé is appointed to design the new collection. Boutiques selling clothes and accessories soon spring up from America to Europe and Asia.
1979
Kitty D’Alessio named president of Chanel in America. In 1984, she will receive a special CFDA award for revitalizing the brand’s image Stateside.
1980
Former Vogue fashion editor Frances Patiky Stein comes on board as artistic director of accessories and injects a new cool. Heidi Morawetz joins as director of Chanel’s makeup studio.
1981
Antaeus Pour Homme bows. Roman Polanski directs a TV commercial for the scent.
1982
Rouge Extrême high-intensity lip color introduced. Blanc Universel makeup base revolutionizes the market. The house of Chanel and Philippe Guiborgé announce a parting of ways. His last collection will be for Fall/Winter 1982. September: Chanel reveals the appointment of Karl Lagerfeld to the couture line and Hervé Léger to ready-to-wear. October: Léger, Marianne Oudin, and Eva Campocasso—all former Lagerfeld protégés—design the spring ready-to-wear collection, which debuts a notably shorter hemline, breaking Coco’s above-the-knee taboo. Oversize costume jewelry is given a lavish new spin. November: Blade Runner director Ridley Scott shoots a dreamy New Wave spot for Chanel No. 5.
1983
January: Lagerfeld’s highly anticipated Chanel Haute Couture collection debuts. March: For fall, Léger and Oudin present their second ready-to-wear effort. October: Lagerfeld designs the ready-to-wear collection for spring, taking over the line. December: Chanel does maternity looks for model Jerry Hall. The house is credited for a renewed trend in big faux pearls.
1984
America’s first freestanding Chanel boutique opens in Honolulu. In the nineties, the store will top sales at all Chanel locations around the world. October: Two-tone shoes get a new look, in flats and wedges, with a navy-and-red combo.
1985
Andy Warhol gives the iconic Chanel No. 5 bottle the Pop Art touch. Eight years later, maison Chanel will offer the fragrance in limited-edition packaging bearing the now-famous image. February: Chanel’s first U.S. mainland store opens on Rodeo Drive. September: Coco fragrance launched.
1986
An eau de parfum version of No. 5 introduced. The fall couture collection wins Le Dé d’Or Golden Thimble award. The brand’s first New York store opens at 5 East Fifty-Seventh Street.
1987
Watches introduced, with a dedicated boutique on the avenue Montaigne. The inaugural Première watch design is based on the Chanel No. 5 bottle. Fine jewelry division also created. Unable to successfully commission the melancholy look he wants, Lagerfeld begins taking his own fashion photos. He will go on to photograph Chanel’s campaigns himself. Vogue runs a feature on French actress Carole Bouquet, the latest face of Chanel No. 5, in its December issue.
1988
Lagerfeld and the house of Chanel win the CFDA’s Special Award for International Fashion.
1989
Vogue writer Georgina Howell profiles Lagerfeld in Vogue. September: “Chanel by Chanel,” the house’s first extensive exhibit, is mounted at Sotheby’s London.
1990
Mademoiselle watch collection launched. Following the departure of longtime house ambassadress Inès de la Fressange, Lagerfeld anoints the blonde German model Claudia Schiffer as brand face, launching her career into the stratosphere. October: Californian supermodel Christy Turlington poses for an Irving Penn Vogue shoot dressed as an eighteenth-century royal in a gold-embroidered white Chanel dress and thigh-high boots. November: Vogue talks to filmmaker Jean-Paul Goude about his hit commercial for Chanel’s new men’s fragrance, Égoïste.
1991
Pour Monsieur Eau de Toilette Concentrée fragrance debuts. Model Christy Turlington stars in ads for the couture collection. French songstress Vanessa Paradis stars in Coco perfume ads, dressed as an exotic bird. She will go on to become one of the brand’s most celebrated faces. September: Vogue explores Lagerfeld’s revival of the house in “The Chanel Obsession.”
1992
The house backs the expansion of Isaac Mizrahi, taking a large stake in the American label. November: Vogue’s Katherine Betts meets venerated Chanel shoemaker Raymond Massaro.
1993
Chanel Fine Jewelry re-creates pieces from the 1932 Bijoux de Diamants collection. The showpiece is the Volute, a white-gold pavé necklace created from South Sea pearls and pear-cut diamonds. December: Chanel reissues the classic Gardénia scent.
1994
Canadian-born model Shalom Harlow is the new face of Chanel’s Coco fragrance, in ads shot in Mlle Chanel’s Paris apartment. November: Vamp nail color triggers months-long waiting lists. August: Vogue talks bra mania, spotlighting Lagerfeld’s use of built-in push-up bras in the fall couture. October: Vogue’s Katherine Betts tries one of Lagerfeld’s new corsets on for size.
1995
Les Editions Éphémères (later called Star Products) limited-edition makeup line launched. March: In Vogue, mid-century Chanel model Suzy Parker recalls her close relationship with the dowager couturiere, and discusses Lagerfeld’s new take on the house. September: Vamp lipstick introduced; Very Very Vamp and Metallic Vamp nail polish and lip colors soon follow.
1996
Lady Amanda Harlech comes on board as creative assistant; she will grow to become Lagerfeld’s close collaborator and muse. The house acquires bespoke gunsmiths Holland & Holland. February: WWD estimates annual sales of Chanel No. 5 to be $50 million in the U.S. alone. March: Vogue beauty writer Amy Astley tries out Chanel’s newest scent, Allure. April: Shalom Harlow appears in Vogue’s ode to Chanel, a Karl Lagerfeld couture portfolio photographed by Irving Penn. June: Chanel taps artsy aristo-model Stella Tennant as its latest brand face. September: Vogue writer Candace Bushnell details the maison’s investment in Frédéric Fekkai Beauté.
1997
Chanel Fine Jewelry boutique opens in the refurbished former Hôtel de Cressart on the Place Vendôme. The house acquires high-end swimsuit and lingerie maker Eres. Paraffection subsidiary established. In coming years, it will acquire several renowned specialty firms including Lesage (embroidery), Lemarié (feathers and flowers), Massaro (shoes), Desrues (costume jewelry, buttons, chains), Guillet (fabric flowers), Goossens (gold- and silversmiths), and Michel (millinery). “So long as the house of Chanel exists, couture exists,”[21] Lagerfeld will tell Vanity Fair in 2009.
1998
Allure Homme (men’s) and Une Fleur de Chanel (women’s) scents introduced. October: Chanel withdraws its investment in Isaac Mizrahi. Chanel’s first MTV spot, directed by Luc Besson, stars new face Estella Warren as a sultry Red Riding Hood.
1999
Chanel Fine Jewelry launches the Passage collection. Model Devon Aoki tapped for a campaign. January: Chanel’s drop-waist skirts are included in the Met’s Costume Institute exhibit “Cubism and Fashion.” June: Coco Chanel is named to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people of the twentieth century.
2000
J12 Chromatic titanium ceramic watch, a future cult item, launched. A Chanel boutique opens in New York’s SoHo. October: Chanel sport collection debuts.
2001
Kate Moss is the face of the new Coco Mademoiselle fragrance. Chanel Fine Jewelry taps graphic artist Jean-Paul Goude to design its Five Elements collection. The house acquires a stake in watchmaker Bell & Ross.
2002
Perles de Chanel launches. For its seventieth-anniversary showcase, Rêves de Diamants, Chanel Fine Jewelry reissues the Collier Comète diamond necklace. French actress Anna Mouglalis named face of Allure perfume; becomes brand ambassadress. January: Chanel concept boutique opens in London, the first in Europe. July: Jewelry-and-watch flagship store opens on New York’s Madison Avenue; an adjoining shoe-and-handbag boutique soon follows. December: First Métiers d’Art collection bows.
2003
March: Seventies model Pat Cleveland walks the runway with daughter Anna Van Ravenstein in tow. April: Chance perfume launches. December: Dressed in pale blue Chanel Haute Couture, Natalia Vodianova is Vogue’s Alice in Wonderland; Karl Lagerfeld poses with the model in the lavish fashion fairy tale.
2004
Chanel No. 5 Elixir Sensuel introduced. April: Vogue’s Hamish Bowles reviews Chanel’s Cinq à Sept collection, which celebrates the work of paruriers—adornment-makers—owned by the house. September: Kennedy Fraser, writing in Vogue, explores Lagerfeld’s success. October: Maureen Chiquet takes over as U.S. president and CEO from longtime head Arie Kopelman. November: Baz Luhrmann directs Nicole Kidman in the multimillion-dollar spot Chanel No. 5: The Film. Kidman also models the Chanel No. 5 necklace of 320 diamonds set in white gold. December: Chanel’s ten-story Ginza, Tokyo, megaboutique—designed by Chanel store mastermind Peter Marino—opens to much fanfare.
2005
January: Ruban Perlé facial illuminators get glowing reviews. Fekkai and Chanel part ways. March: Chanel Fine Jewelry’s Celestial Elements exhibit circles the globe. May: The Met’s Costume Institute’s all-important annual exhibit focuses this year on Chanel; Nicole Kidman wears a braid-trimmed, midnight-blue column to the opening gala. Meanwhile, Vogue’s Hamish Bowles details Chanel’s history, with a vintage couture portfolio shot by Steven Meisel. July: Vogue society scribe William Norwich details the style highlights of the Met party. October: The fall makeup range is inspired by Coco’s famed Chinese Coromandel screens. December: Actress Selma Blair stars in Chanel Vision ads.
2006
Allure Sensuelle fragrance released. The bowling bag introduced. Créations Exclusives makeup line launched. The new Moscow flagship is Russia’s first. April: Top-tier Rouge Allure Luminous Satin Lip Colour line introduced. September: Transparent quilted Naked Bag is the house’s answer to new airport-security carry-on regulations. Loïc Prignet’s Signé Chanel behind-the-scenes documentary premieres on cable. November: Black Satin nail polish is all the rage. Les Perles de Chanel haute joaillerie launched.
2007
A changing of the guard: Young British actress Keira Knightley replaces Kate Moss as the new face of Coco Mademoiselle; Freja Beha Erichsen takes the place of Daria Werbowy as the house’s primary face. Duo Platinum nail polish bows. Chance Eau Fraîche released. January: Chiquet named to the newly created global CEO post. February: Les Exclusifs de Chanel fragrance collection introduced. The range includes four classics—Gardenia, No. 22, Cuir de Russie, and Bois des Iles—as well as six new scents created by longtime perfumer Jacques Polge. April: The two-tone shoe gets another update. December: Hand-finished bicycle with quilted leather accents rolls into stores.
2008
January: Belgian makeup artist Peter Philips named global creative director of Chanel Beauté. Chanel’s Nuit de Diamants black-and-white ball at the Plaza Hotel showcases new Vendôme haute joaillerie. Chanel’s Mobile Art gallery, designed by Zaha Hadid, opens in Hong Kong. April: The classic Chanel jacket makes Time’s Design 100 list. May: Nineties face Christy Turlington models eyewear and handbags. French actress Audrey Tautou is Chanel No. 5’s latest girl. Madonna wears Chanel’s black bow-front frock for her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. June: Sorceress Emma Watson is the new face of Coco Mademoiselle. July: Gold Fiction 18K nail polish has the season’s Midas touch. August: Vogue beauty editor Sarah Brown pens a profile of Philips. Facettes d’Or cosmetics bows. October: Chanel Unlimited line of bags and accessories introduced. Chanel No. 5 Eau Première released. November: Collectible silver and gold Coco coins feature Mlle Chanel’s profile on the face and quilting on the reverse.
2009
Seventies supermodel Jerry Hall models handbags. Bohemian Fantasy makeup bows. April: Cristalle Eau Verte perfume launches. May: London Madness makeup collection released. June: Lagerfeld dresses the English National Ballet for its Ballets Russes season productions The Dying Swan and Apollo at Sadler’s Wells, London. August: Chanel fragrance bar set up at London’s Selfridges flagship. September: Jade nail polish triggers green-with-envy waiting lists (bidders later nab bottles for more than $100 on eBay). Vogue reports on Noirs Obscurs lipsticks. October: Popster Lily Allen models new Coco Cocoon handbags. December: Shanghai flagship opens. Maison Chanel dresses Penélope Cruz in vintage and current looks for Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces.
2010
January: Rouge Coco Hydrating Crème Lip Colour launched; Vanessa Paradis lends her lips to the line. February: Les Trompe L’Oeil de Chanel temporary tattoos add ink to more waiting lists. April: Noir et Or makeup released. Chance Eau Tendre fragrance debuts. May: Lagerfeld’s Remember Now short film premieres in St.-Tropez; Georgia May Jagger, rock-’n’-roll princess, walks the cruise catwalk. June: Lagerfeld receives France’s prestigious Légion d’Honneur award. July: Plumes de Chanel is the latest in haute joaillerie. Pro-surfer Laird Hamilton models Chanel’s first men’s diving watch, the J12 Marine. August: Plus-size mannequin Crystal Renn tapped for ads. Martin Scorsese directs the spot for new men’s fragrance Bleu de Chanel. September: The Couture Council of the Museum at F.I.T. honors Lagerfeld with a special Fashion Visionary Award. October: Eighties house ambassadress Inès de la Fressange returns to the runway and upcoming ads. Vogue’s It Girls model Chanel’s 2.55s. November: Lagerfeld is the keynote speaker at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund dinner.
2011
Chanel No. 19 Poudre introduced. January: Veteran models Stella Tennant and Kristen McMenamy walk the runway. “Culture Chanel” retrospective opens at MOCA Shanghai. February: Secrets d’Orient Byzantine-themed fine jewelry debuts. March: Chanel and Paris boutique Colette put up a pop-up for Paris Fashion Week. Gossip Girl Blake Lively models Mademoiselle handbags. Keira Knightley brings biker chic to Coco Mademoiselle ads. May: Lagerfeld’s The Tale of a Fairy fantasy short premieres. Bleu de Chanel named Specialty Luxe men’s fragrance of the year at the FiFis. July: Clad in a baby-blue custom Chanel pantsuit, Charlene Wittstock weds Prince Albert of Monaco in a civil ceremony. Illusions d’Ombres de Chanel makeup bows. Contrastes fine jewelry debuts. September: Chanel Boy (after Boy Capel) bag range introduced.
(c) VOGUEPEDIA
