Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in 1883 in Saumur, France. Her mother died when she was eleven; her father deposited her in an orphanage run by nuns in Aubazine, where she spent six years. For the rest of her life, Chanel lied about her origins — claiming to have been born in 1893, raised by aunts, never mentioning the orphanage. The nuns taught her to sew. The geometric patterns of the orphanage's stained glass windows, which she stared at for years, later appeared in her jewellery designs.

Chanel opened her first shop — a millinery boutique — in Paris in 1910, funded by her wealthy lover Arthur Capel. Her early clients were the mistresses of rich men: women who needed to look fashionable but could not be seen at couture houses frequented by their lovers' wives. Chanel's hats were simple and unadorned at a time when elaborate decoration was fashionable. Society women initially dismissed her as a dressmaker for kept women. Then they started copying her.

Chanel No. 5, launched in 1921, was the first perfume to bear a designer's name. Chanel chose the fifth formula presented to her by perfumer Ernest Beaux and named it with characteristic directness. She reportedly said: "I want to give women an artificial perfume. Yes, I really do mean artificial, like a dress, something that has been made." Chanel No. 5 became the best-selling perfume in history and remains so today. A bottle is sold every 30 seconds worldwide.

American Vogue published Chanel's little black dress in 1926, describing it as "the Ford of fashion." Black had previously been associated with mourning. Chanel made it the foundation of modern women's dressing. She also introduced jersey fabric — previously used only for men's underwear — into women's fashion, and replaced the corset with comfortable, functional clothing. She later said: "I freed the body." The Chanel suit — braid-trimmed jacket and matching skirt — became one of the defining garments of the twentieth century following her 1954 comeback.

Chanel reported revenues of $19.7 billion for 2023 — making it one of the largest fashion houses in the world, comparable in scale to Gucci and Louis Vuitton but without any of their parent companies' public reporting obligations. Chanel remains entirely privately held by the Wertheimer family, who acquired a majority stake from Coco Chanel in 1924. The company has consistently rejected calls to go public, arguing that quarterly earnings pressure is incompatible with the long-term brand investment that luxury requires. The girl from the orphanage who lied about her origins for 70 years had inadvertently built one of the most secretive — and most valuable — companies in fashion history.