My brand: Coco Chanel (brand evaluation)

Coco Chanel was a respectful style icon and fashion designer known for her simple and sophisticated outfits that are usually accompanied with imposing accessories, such as multiple strands of pearls.
Despite all the current glory around her name, Cocos’ life was easy. Some of the events that have stigmatized her life were the death of her mother while Coco was still a kid and the decision of her father to transfer her in an orphanage. Cocos’ started shining around her 20s when Etienne Balsan offered her a vacancy in a millinery shop in Paris. In 1910, she managed to become an independent businesswoman by opening her first millinery shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon.
She only realized that her talent extends from hats to clothes when created a dress for her to wear in a social event. This stimulated her to design and commercialize a little black dress; a revolutionary product that contradicted with the preservative ideas of the era. Coco continued surprising her audience by introducing the now thrilled Chanel suit with collarless jacket and slim well-fitted skirt which from 1925 till now is one of the legendary products of fashion. With the new trends she introduced in fashion she pulled women away from corsets and all the other products that were confining the feminine body.
But Coco didn’t stop there, during 1920s she also entered the cosmetics industry by launching a perfume named Chanel No. 5. This was the first perfume that was created from a company that was mostly known about its contribution in fashion while also being labeled with a designer’s name. Not surprisingly this perfume quickly became a bestseller around the world. By 1929, Chanel house was exporting a whole cosmetic line in the global market.
The international economic crisis of 1930 did not left Chanel house untouchable with the company being bankrupt after the beginning of World War II. However, this was not the end of the house since at her 70 Coco returned back in the industry. After facing harsh critiques she managed to re-convince everyone that her feminine and comfortable designs are the one to conquer the world. Since then Chanel is brand that everyone respects, trusts and admires.
Coco Chanel died on 10/01/1971 at the age of 87 in her apartment at Ritz Hotel. About a decade after this a designer named Karl Lagerfeld took the reins of Chanel house and continued the glorious work that Coco initiated. Today Chanel company is owned by Wertheimer family and continues to success both financially and fashion wise.

(no date) Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/coco-chanel-9244165#fashion-pioneer (Accessed: 12 April 2016).

Inline Citations: 

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Chesters, A. (2016) A brief history of Chanel. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2012/feb/20/brief-history-of-chanel (Accessed: 12 April 2016).