“If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing”Coco Chanel: liberator of women.

Coco Chanel is undoubtedly the most famous designer in the world, celebrated as a style icon, who made her mark on fashion in the 20th century, creating a style that is still popular today.

We can consider Gabrielle Chanel a true revolutionary, especially about woman’s role. She was never intimidated by society’s rules and gave a magnificent contribution to female emancipation, revolutionizing the concept of female elegance and the way women saw and liked themselves.

Chanel changed not only the way women dressed, but their way of being, their lives: she made a clean sweep of all the dogmas of the Victorian tradition, freeing the female body from busts and crinolines, and dressing it with a new fashion concept, made of an absolute simplicity.

When WWI broke out in 1914, though women who worked within the public sector continued to wear skirts, many women who took on more manual roles began to wear trousers. Coco loved wearing trousers herself, often borrowing her boyfriend’s suits, and she began designing trousers for women, which soon became a fashion choice rather than merely a functional garment.

And how about 2.55? The icon handbag created by Madame Chanel in February 1955. (The name 2.55, therefore, represents the month and year of mark its creation). This sturdy purse is typically made in soft calfskin and comes with straps inspired by the military bags from the 1920s. The addition of straps allowed women to carry their purse hands-free, as Gabrielle said: “I got fed up with holding my purses in my hands and losing them, so I added a strap and carried them over my shoulder.”.

Thanks to these revolutionary style changes, women were finally just being free to move, a fashion symbolic big step towards modernity, which Chanel herself embodied perfectly.

Sources: medavita.it, artevitae.it

Originally published at https://www.redpublic.com on February 4, 2021.