Chanel S.A.

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in 1883 in Saumur, France. Her mother died when she was eleven; her father, a street vendor, 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 — a radical departure from the convention of naming fragrances after flowers or romantic concepts. 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.

American Vogue published Chanel's little black dress in 1926, describing it as "the Ford of fashion" — a garment so simple and universally flattering that every woman could wear it. 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."

Chanel closed her fashion house in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II and spent the war years with a German officer — a relationship that led to accusations of collaboration and a brief arrest after liberation. She lived in Switzerland for nine years. She returned to fashion in 1954 at age 70, when most designers were at the end of their careers. Her comeback collection was initially dismissed by the French press. Women loved it. The Chanel suit — braid-trimmed jacket and matching skirt — became one of the defining garments of the twentieth century.