Dressful

Coco Chanel by Man Ray

Coco Chanel, the most famous woman in fashion history, needs little introduction. Widely credited with revolutionising womenswear in the early twentieth century, she founded one of the world's top luxury brands. Fashion historians argue that she was not the only nor the first designer to apply modernist principles to dressmaking. Still, Chanel's influence on the fashions and people who came after her is indisputable.

Coco Chanel's story might have been told thousands of times, but few know that she started as a milliner. In 1907, she met Arthur Boy Capel, an English businessman who made a fortune in coal transportation. They became lovers and she went to live with him. Unhappy with her status of a kept woman, she persuaded Capel and her former lover Etienne Balsan to set her up in the hat business. She opened a shop on Rue Cambon in Paris, selling simple trimmed straw boaters. They were a far cry from gaudy headwear decorated with feathers and fruits that she sternly observed at the opera and horse races. "In the grandstands, people began talking about my amazing, unusual hats, so neat and austere, which were somehow a foretaste of the iron age that was to come, but which had not yet dawned."

The iron age that was to come was the First World War. In 1913, Chanel and Capel withdrew from Paris to Deauville, a seaside resort in Normandy, like many members of the French high society. The sartorial situation in Deauville was critical. The jet-set would rather be caught dead than in old clothes, but there were no dressmakers. Chanel seized the opportunity and opened a boutique selling ready-to-wear. She introduced simple sportswear, bathing suits and comfortable sweaters made from jersey. The fabric had previously been used for men's undergarments. "By inventing the jersey, I liberated the body, I discarded the waist, I created a new shape; in order to conform to it, all my customers, with the help of the war, became slim. Women came to me to buy their slim figures."

Chanel in Biarritz, wearing a jersey suit (1928)

Chanel’s clothes were based on her own boyish style, inspired by high-end English sportswear worn by her lovers. She adopted the look during her relationship with Etienne Balsan to distinguish herself from the demimondaines who surrounded him. Her sportswear initially appeared a radical novelty - the previous epoch was one of corsetry and floor-sweeping skirts. With the war calling for a pared-down, practical look and rejecting extravagance, the style became fashionable. In 1915, she opened a second boutique in Biarritz, another resort town newly filled with wealthy refugees, and started selling haute couture.

Illustration of the "little black dress" in American Vogue (1926)

Her disdain for obvious luxury aside, Chanel readily participated in the high life of travel and glamorous events - the natural habitats of her clients. As society became more progressive in the twenties, women gained more freedom to think for themselves. With her own lucrative business and independence, Chanel was an idol for many. Women wanted to be like her and thought they would achieve it by looking like her. She expanded her premises on Rue Cambon, continuing to set trends for the new age. In 1926, American Vogue published an illustration of her "little black dress". They compared it to the Ford car, predicting it would become a staple in every woman’s wardrobe. She famously cut her hair short because it annoyed her. Equally short were her hemlines, laying the foundation for the garçonne look, the French equivalent of the flapper.

Chanel perfumes

In 1920, Chanel met Ernest Beaux, an acclaimed perfumer with a laboratory in Grasse, and commissioned a perfume. Chanel No. 5 (she chose the name after her lucky number) went on sale the following year. It became such a success that she lived off the royalties for the rest of her life. More than ninety years later, it remains the most popular perfume in the world; a bottle is sold every 30 seconds.

Apart from clothes, Chanel also designed accessories. Her attitude to precious jewellery was nonchalant. She favoured glass copies because "they were devoid of arrogance in an epoch of too easy luxe". She mixed cheap costume jewellery with real gems so the latter also gave an impression of being fake. The designer believed that jewellery should be worn as an adornment, not to flaunt wealth. Even her pearls were imitation. In 1932, she had a change of heart, staging an exhibition of diamond jewellery in her Paris apartment. Her explanation was that in times of Depression, diamonds were an investment.

Actress Gloria Swanson wearing Chanel in Tonight or Never (1931)

The Chanel fame eventually spread across the pond. In 1931, the film magnate Samuel Goldwyn invited her to Hollywood on a $1 million contract. His costume designers copied Paris fashions, but by the time films hit theatres, the dresses in them had become outdated. He thought to employ a French designer to provide up-to-the minute designs. Despite the generous salary, Chanel oversaw the costume design in no more than three films: Palmy Days (1931), The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932), and Tonight or Never (1931) with Gloria Swanson. American actresses did not maintain the cult-like respect towards the designer that she had grown accustomed to in France. Fabulously wealthy, Chanel left Hollywood for good.

She enjoyed a prosperous decade before the Second World War, when the house of Chanel closed down. While its 1954 relaunch is usually attributed to Chanel’s persistence and iron will, the truth is that the sales of her perfumes plummeted during the war. Her business partner advised her to restore the brand’s image by reopening the couture house. The press found many reasons to criticise the comeback collection. Fashion had changed completely with Dior’s New Look in 1947 while Chanel reverted to her simple styles from the twenties. She received significant support from Bettina Ballard, the editor of French Vogue, who photographed three pages of her looks for the magazine. The next collection was more successful. It turned out that Chanel still was what women wanted to wear. Besides, many countries were under rationing restrictions, so women were unable to afford New Look that required several metres of fabric.

Classic Chanel 2.55 handbag

Model Stella Tennant wearing a Chanel suit

In the fifties, Chanel introduced most of the innovations that we associate with the brand today. Lightweight jersey cardigans from the twenties gave way to tweed and wool jackets lined in silk with a chain in the hem weighing down the fabric to ensure optimal fit. Paired with skirts in the same fabric, they formed the famous Chanel suit. Tired of holding purses in her hands and losing them, the designer attached a shoulder strap. The Chanel 2.55 handbag (named after February 1955, its release month) was born. Slingback pumps in beige leather with black toe caps also stem from that period. They were inspired by two-toned shoes that Chanel's lover, the Duke of Westminster, wore to play golf. "A woman with good shoes is never ugly. They are the last touch of elegance."

Always ahead of her time and bitterly honest, Chanel was a controversial personality. Nothing irritated her more than hearing people say that she had been lucky. "No one has worked harder than me," she said. Indeed, her death on January 10, 1971 was the first and last thing to stop her from showing up in the atelier. With a string of lesser known designers ineptly dabbling in Chanel's creative direction, the brand entered a slump. The glorious and elegant Chanel became associated with the rich and tasteless. Finally, Karl Lagerfeld took over the helm in 1983. Taking inspiration from Chanel’s vast legacy, he synchronised the house’s codes with the needs and wants of the modern consumer. Remembering what she stood for, it is perhaps ironic that Chanel’s luxury goods are now perceived as fashion's most wanted status symbols. It is also, however, the best sign of her eternal reign on the sartorial Olympus.

Marchesa Luisa Casati by Man Ray (1922)

Marchesa Luisa Casati was an eccentric patroness of the arts and socialite, born into an aristocratic Italian family in 1881. As a teenager, she inherited an immense fortune that she later used to fund her transformation into a living work of art. In her ruined Venetian palace (the same that houses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection) she held legendary soirées, surrounding herself with artists and intellectuals, dabbling in the occult, wearing live snakes as jewellery and parading around the city with cheetahs on jewelled leashes. Her signature look consisted of eyes blackened with kohl, deathly pale face, and crimson-painted lips.

Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati by Augustus John

The Marchesa as Empress Elisabeth of Austria by Man Ray (1935)

The Marchesa commissioned countless portraits of herself and became one of the most portrayed women in history. Her quest to immortalise herself in art was one of the many things the Marchesa had in common with the Countess of Castiglione, the notorious 19th century femme fatale she had modelled herself on. The Marchesa had lived so lavishly that despite her wealth, she was $25 million in debt at the time of her death.

Besotted with her mother’s Charles Frederick Worth and Jacques Doucet gowns as a little girl, the Marchesa grew up to become one of the driving forces behind early 20th century haute couture. A patroness and muse to the leading couturiers of the day, she invested exorbitant amounts of money in the best designs and materials. Paul Poiret, Mariano Fortuny, Jean Patou, Léon Bakst and Erté designed extravagant costumes that she wore to dinner parties and high society balls across Europe, often aiming to shock rather than impress.

Marchesa Casati in a fountain costume by Paul Poiret (1910s)

Marchesa Casati in Léon Bakst's Queen of the Night costume (1922)

One of her most iconic ensembles was the Queen of the Night costume designed by Bakst in 1922 that she wore to a masquerade ball in Paris. Covered entirely in diamonds, the costume took three months to complete. On another occasion, dressed up as the Christian martyr Saint Sebastian complete with electrified arrows, the Marchesa suffered an electric shock and had to withdraw from the party for the rest of the evening.

Naturally, the Marchesa’s outlandish costumes required the company of expensive jewellery. Her favourites were René Lalique, who provided her with bespoke pieces, and later the house of Cartier. The house’s head designer Jeanne Toussaint, who personally delivered jewellery to the Marchesa, was inspired to create Cartier’s famous panther jewel after seeing a stuffed panther in her client’s home.

The Marchesa with artists Paul-César Helleu and Giovanni Boldini in Venice (1913)

Portrait of Marchesa Casati by Adolph de Meyer

By the time she was fifty, the Marchesa had amassed a debt so large that her belongings had to be auctioned off. From then on, she lived on credit, renting rooms and relying on the generosity of her friends. During the Second World War, she moved to London. The Marchesa spent her last years in poverty, constantly changing addresses, ringing her eyes with boot polish as she could no longer afford kohl, and rummaging through rubbish bins for scraps of fabric to decorate her shabby outfits. Her tombstone in London’s Brompton Cemetery bears an epitaph from Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”

Designer Georgina Chapman as Marchesa Casati by Peter Lindbergh in Harper's Bazaar March 2009

Fashion and Marchesa Luisa Casati remain intertwined even after her death with contemporary designers recurrently citing her as the inspiration behind catwalk shows and collections. The British design duo Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig pay homage to her with their high-end womenswear label Marchesa. In the words of Chapman, who posed for Peter Lindbergh in 2009 dressed up as her muse, “the Marchesa Casati was fearless, both in life and fashion. She was self-indulgent in the most empowering way and used her attire to transform herself into timeless walking art. When you are able to dress and live without limits, the possibilities of what you can accomplish are endless.”

Norman Norell's 1960 collection inspired by Marchesa Casati

In 1960, famed American designer Norman Norell presented a collection based on Dutch artist Kees van Dongen’s portrait of the Marchesa standing by the Venetian lagoon. At the time, Norell owned the painting and posed in front of it with his models, clad in sleek paillette dresses and large circles of black eyeshadow, for the cover of Life magazine shot by Milton H. Greene.

Tom Ford saw the Marchesa as “the first European dandy of the early 21st century”, dedicating to her his Spring/Summer 2004 collection for YSL Rive Gauche. At first glance, the collection seemed to have little in common with its inspiration apart from incorporating the Marchesa’s signature kohl-ringed eyes and voluminous ragged hair. Criticised as one of Tom Ford’s worst collections, it (probably unintentionally) hit the right spot with half-naked models. The Marchesa was known to resort to nudity on the odd occasion when men’s attention shifted to other women. In Venice, people were outraged by her late night strolls around the city wearing nothing but a fur coat.

Armoured look from Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 1998 by John Galliano (image by Fashionanthology)

Dior’s Spring/Summer 1998 haute couture show resembled one of the Marchesa’s extravagant masquerade balls. Set in the Opéra Garnier in Paris, where the Marchesa herself had attended many events, it reportedly cost $2 million to stage. John Galliano designed a romantic collection featuring fur-lined kimonos, veils, lace, and sleek, floor-length gowns heavily embellished with beads and fringe. One model wore a piece of armour covering the whole arm, evoking the Marchesa’s 1925 Cesare Borgia costume. “Although no longer with us, her life stays as a beacon and as a constant source of inspiration,” said Galliano. A decade later, he launched an eponymous perfume inspired by the Marchesa’s first Boldini portrait.

Chanel Resort 2010 show in Venice

Karl Lagerfeld paid tribute to the Marchesa with his Chanel Resort 2010 show, appropriately set in Venice on the island of Lido. The glamorous collection was imbued with black, white, and gold (the Marchesa’s favourite colours) as well as references to her life, such as armour-like accessories and snakes. In 2003, Lagerfeld photographed Carine Roitfeld, then editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, dressed as the Marchesa for The New Yorker. In the accompanying article, he said that “Roitfeld plays a modern Casati, but the drama of Casati was that she was not playing.” Thanks to her sincere and raw quality, Marchesa Luisa Casati will continue to inspire for the years to come.

Breaking news

Fendi Autumn/Winter 2014 was the first catwalk show ever to have been filmed by drones. While technologically exciting, I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for the audience and models — as if the multitude of iPads and camera flashes blocking and blinding people's view wasn't annoying enough.

*

The ninth issue of everyone's favourite non-fashiony magazine, The Gentlewoman, is out — and Vivienne Westwood is the cover girl. I suppose this is the surprise I was talking about in last week's installment of This week in fashion. I swear I hadn't known!

*

Ten pieces from Jeremy Scott's first collection for Moschino went on sale at London boutique Browns the day after the catwalk show. The collection may be intended for next autumn and winter, but it fits the current London weather just fine. The whole "showing collections seven months ahead" shebang just doesn't make sense any more.

Good reads

• Confessions of a D-List Blogger During New York Fashion Week
• Meet Mouna Ayoub: the billionaire haute couture collector
• London Fashion Week still the best place for new talent?

Visual feast

Burberry Autumn/Winter 2014 London map scarf