A brief chronology on the life of Gabrielle Chanel

Im fashion addicted and i absolutely adore CHANEL (not her clothes or even bags lol just her life is full of experiences LOVERS romances and heartbreaks) despite all of that and more she worked her way to being one of the best designers EVER so0o here is a brief chronology of her life :) ENJOY

1883: 19th of August. Birth of Gabrielle Chanel at a hospice in Saumur. Her parents are unmarried. Her father, an itinerant pedlar, is away at the time of her birth.
1895: Gabrielles mother dies with her sister, Gabrielle is taken by her father to an orphanage in Aubazine run by nuns
1900: Gabriella is admitted to a religious institution in Moulins. The convent is both a fee-paying school for young ladies and a free school for improvished and need young women. Gabrielle makes occasional visites to Varennes-sur-Allier where, under her aunt;s tutelage, she learns how to sew and fashion pleats.
1903: Gabriella distinguishes herself as a seamstrss and, after taking a room independently, begins to keep the complany of lieutenants in the Tenth Light Horse Brigade, among whom she enjoys her first lovers.
1904: Gabriella makes her debut as one of a number of young women enlivening the stage behind the main acts at La Rotonde. She gains the nickname "COCO" from two songs: 'Ko Ko Ri Ko' and 'Qui qu'a vu Coco dans l'Trocadero?' the sobriquet sticks.
1906: Coco's friends and sometime lover, Etienne Balsan, inherits money and purchases an estate at Royallieu where he breeds racing horses. Coco goes with him as an "apprentice"
1908: Coco lazes aroung, taking advantage of chateau life. She impresses all as a horsewoman, and fraternises with stars of the turf. She makes occasional sorties to Paris. Coco meets Arthu Capel "BOY". bored with leisure and equestrian life, she begins to make hats for friends.
1909: Set up by Etienne is an apartment is Paris, Coco begins business as a milliner and becomes an immediate success.
1910: Coco begins an affair with BOY and moves premises to rue Cambon, no. 21 where she is a licensed milliner.
1912: Coco makes hats for leading theatre productions, and encounters a wide circle of artists.
1913: The Rit of Spring is conducted by Pierre Monteux at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris on 29 May. Coco Attends the opening performance. She opens her first shop in Deauville. On its white awning her name is stencilled in black "Chanel"
1914: Baroness ROthschild patronises Chanel's shop. Coco enjoys her first success as a dress designer.
1915: Aristocratic ladies fleeing an advancing German army repair to Deauville, and to Chanel's to restock their lost wardrobes. She opens a shop in Biarrits across from the casino. Her total workforce now number sixty
1916: Coco gains complete financial independence. With most male designers co-opted into the war-effort, she is ledt clear to mop up the fashion market. Her workforce expands to 300
1919: BOY dies in an automobile accident. Heartbroken, Coco has her bedroom decorated all in black, including black curtains and bed-sheets. She goes to Venice with her friend Misia Sert to recover. There she meets Diaghilev.
1920: Coco moves from no. 21 to no. 31 rue Cambon, registering for the first time as a coutouriere. Diaghilev whose name W.H Auden will use as a slant rhyme for "Love"- intoduces her to Igor Stravinsky. The two become lovers.
1921: Coco sells the villa in Garches and takes an apartment in the Faubourg. A piano is the first piece of furniture installed. Stravinsky and Diaghilev are among those who regularly visit and play. Chanel meets Picasso, and the poet Pierre Reverdy whom she takes as a lover. No.5 is launched commercially.
1922:Coco designs costumes for Cocteau;s Antigone, so beginning a long professional association
1925: The year of the little black dress. Its funeral chic scandalises and captivates Parisian society. Like the Model T Ford, it will becom a design icon. Reverdy leaves Paris. Coco meets Winston Churchill, and is courted by his bst friend, the Duke of Westminster. The affair least for five years, and there is mych speculation about marriage in the British press. During this time she tries desperately, but unsuccessfully to have a child.
1926:Coco designs the costumes for Cocteau's Orphee. She begins a fashion for wearing mismatched earrings, sporting a black pearl in one ear and awhite pearl in the other. Coco designs and makes the costumes. Struggling to keep up with demand, she grants sole right to manufacture and sell Chanel No. 5 to the Wertheimer brothers.
1929:Coco visits Diaghilev on his deathbed. Coco organises and pays for his funeral and burial on the mortuary island of San Michele near Venice.
1930: The Duke of Westminster, tired of Coco devoting so much time to couture in Paris, finally elects to marry a fellow aristocrat "Miss Loelia Ponsonby" Coco's reaction is typically combative: "There have been several duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Gabrielle Chanel!"
1931: Coco is inveigled to Hollywood by Sumuel Goldwyn and contracted, for 1 million dollars, to costume the stars exclusively, both on screen and off. She goes with Misia, and the studio supply a special train from New York decked out in white. Though she it feted like royalty, and supposed to visit twice a year, her stay is brief and she never returns. She is suspicious of Hollywood, which she sees as contolled by Jews. She designs costumes for three films only, including Tonight or Never with Gloria Swanson
1932: Coco has a liaison with the designer and cartoonist, Paul Iribarnegaray ('Iribe') She sponsors the ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic newspaper, Le Temoin, for which he is an illustrator. She allows her face to be used in drawings. The same year Coco hosts a private exhibition of diamonds designed by herself- an apparent volte face for a woman who, until now, has done much to democratise costume jewellery and ennoble fake gems.
1934: Coco moves to the Paris Ritz, and leaves the Faubourg for La Pausa.
1935: Coco grieves over the sudden death of her lover, Pual Iribe.
1938: Coco, in response to the constant strkies that have beset her shops, announces that Chanel is closing down
1939: Coco designs the costumes for 2 French films, The Marseillaise and La Regle du Feu
1941: Coco remains in Paris during the war. She takes a German lover, a high-ranking Nazi officer, von Dinklage of "Spatz". Unusual for a French citizen Coco is allowed to keep her suite at the Ritz. She attempts, unsuccessfully, to regain control of her perfuce business from the Wertheimer brothers, citing Nazi laws that forbid Jews to control the manfacture or sale of goods.
1953 After 8 years of exile, and aged 70, Coco decides to return to Paris and throw herself back into her work.
1954: 5 February, Coco launches her fashion come-back in Paris. After an initially cool reception, she dominates the fashion scene until her death.
1869: Coco a musical version of Chanel's life , appears on Broadway with libretto by Alaln Jay Lerner, music by Andre Previn and costumes by Cocil Beaton. The septuagenarians Kathrine Hepburn is engaged to play Chanel. Coco, in suggesting 'Hepbur' for the role, had meant the much younger "Audrey"
1970: Chanel No. 19 is launched, the number reflecting the date of Coco's birth
1971: Coco dies in her bedroom at the Ritz on Sunday the 10th of January. At her funeral service in the Madeleine, the church is filled with her favorite white lilies. She is buried in the main cemetery in Lausanne, Switzerland. On her headstone are 5 marmoreal lions
1984: A new perfume COCO is launched
1989: Karl Lagerfeld, the new Chanel Fashion impresario launches a new collection for the 1900's at the Theatre des Champs Elysees. The pageant opens to the music of Igor's The Rite of Spring