Coco Chanel
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Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel was born in 1883 in Saumur, France, where she grew up in poverty. In 1895, after her mother died, 11-year-old Gabrielle Chanel was sent to a convent-run orphanage in Aubazine, where she first learned to sew. She began in millinery in Paris. In 1910 she opened her own hat atelier. By 1913 she opened her first boutique, and the Chanel Company was born. Her early work focused on creating a modern wardrobe around ease. She used jersey, a practical knit associated with menswear, to cut simple dresses and separates that moved with the body. In the 1920s she popularized the little black dress and refined a collarless tweed suit that paired crisp lines with real pockets. She layered costume jewelry with fine pieces. In 1921 she introduced Chanel No. 5 and packaged it in a clean, modern bottle that matched her design style. In 1955 she introduced a quilted shoulder bag with a chain strap that kept hands free. Chanel’s pioneering role was to redefine luxury as comfort, clarity, and longevity, giving women a polished wardrobe for public life that looked elegant without restricting movement and setting a benchmark for effortless chic.
Ann Lowe
Back to topAnn Cole Lowe was born in 1898 in Clayton, Alabama, and learned dressmaking from her mother and grandmother, who were both professional seamstresses. She moved to New York to study design and opened her own salons, where she created custom gowns for debutantes, brides, and society clients. Her work is known for precise cutting, airy skirts, and hand-sewn floral decoration that looks light and natural. In 1953 she designed Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding gown for her marriage to John F. Kennedy, as well as the bridesmaids' dresses. A burst pipe ruined much of the work shortly before the ceremony, and Lowe and her team remade the gowns in a matter of days and delivered them on time. For many years newspapers did not credit her by name, but her clientele understood her standard was couture. Museums and historians have since restored her authorship. Lowe's pioneering role was to prove that American couture existed at the highest level, and to pass those skills to the next generation through the ateliers she led.
Elsa Schiaparelli
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Elsa Schiaparelli was born in Rome in 1890 and established her fashion house in Paris. She first found success in 1927 with a trompe l’oeil sweater that knitted a bow into the fabric. She collaborated with artists such as Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau and brought surreal ideas into couture. Notable pieces include the lobster dress painted in 1937, a small hat shaped like a high-heeled shoe, and the skeleton dress that used padded quilting to trace bones. She loved bold color and named her signature shade Shocking Pink. She also used visible zippers and witty hardware as part of the look. Beneath the playful surface sat serious cutting and embroidery from expert ateliers. Schiaparelli’s pioneering role was to make imagination and art central to luxury clothing, to set the model for designer-artist collaborations, and to show that a statement piece can be both clever and beautifully made.
Vivienne Westwood
Back to topVivienne Westwood was born in 1941 in Derbyshire and moved to London, where she emerged from the street culture of the 1970s. With Malcolm McLaren she ran a series of influential shops at 430 King’s Road that shaped the visual language of punk. The graphics, T-shirts, and trousers from those shops moved into the fashion press and set a new tone. Westwood then shifted to runway collections and applied rigorous pattern cutting to historical references. The 1981 Pirate collection broadened her audience, and later work re-cut corsets, crinolines, tartans, and eighteenth-century patterns into sharp, contemporary silhouettes. Signature platforms and sculpted corsets became part of fashion’s shared vocabulary. She also used her shows to speak about culture and environmental issues. Westwood’s pioneering role was to build a bridge from subculture to high fashion, to reimagine historical tailoring for modern life, and to treat clothing as a place where craft and ideas meet.
