Jillian Chantal

Coco- sassy and stylish! I love it!

Today, I feel compelled to talk about Coco Chanel.  She was born in 1883 in France and her birth name was Gabrielle Chanel. She was raised  in an orphanage after the death of her mother as her father couldn’t take care of  her. The orphanage was run by nuns and Coco was raised as a strict Catholic and the nuns taught her to sew.

Gabrielle left the orphanage and changed her name to Coco.  This was the name she took when she became a singer in a nightclub before she started to sew for a living. Some suppose her new name came from one of the songs she sang in the lounge but she herself was quoted as saying it came from the word “cocotte”- a word that means “kept woman”- she shortened it to Coco. She was indeed a kept woman by the time she was twenty years old. She never married and had numerous affairs throughout her life, even with the Duke of Westminster and Igor Stravinsky. She was also involved with a German officer during the occupation of France in World War II.   She was a sassy, savvy business woman and I love that she was raised by nuns yet didn’t act like one herself.