Reading Reflection No. 1

Coco Chanel-An Intimate Life

By: Lisa Chaney

I did not know very much about Coco Chanel prior to reading this book so I really found most everything surprising and interesting. I knew she was a designer of clothing and accessories, and that her brand is still very popular today. I knew nothing of how she got started or anything about who she was as a person. Everything from her name being Gabrielle, to her childhood, to the crazy drugs, all really took me by surprise. I was pleasantly surprise at how gutsy and independent she was in a time where woman usually followed the rules. That's exactly what I admired the most about her. She wasn't afraid to wear the pants. She knew what she wanted and went after it. If she wanted to wear pants and ride a horse then she did. I admire the fact that she did not want help from anyone, not even the men in her life. She was very prideful and wanted to be successful on her own. She wanted to make her own money. I really admire that. I least admire the fact that she would help her friends get drugs. I know that times were different back then with the war and there weren't options for help like there are now but that still doesn't seem like a very good reason to help your friends get drugs. Coco Chanel definitely faced adversity and failure. At that time, it was a mans world and she just lived in it. That was something she was going to change. It was frowned upon for women to work outside of the home. It made the men seem as if they didn't make enough money to support the home. There was a time in which her shop did not make profit. She didn't let any of these things stop her. These things only made her work harder.
Coco possessed a great deal of competencies. She was tenacious, independent, driven, smart, and so much more. She helped change the fashion. She was not like other women during her time. She didn't like what men create for women so she changed it. She created clothing for women's bodies instead of things that changed women's bodies.
The part of the book that confused me the most was trying to keep up with the different language and Parisian culture. I got lost a few times trying to figure out what some words meant or what was going on.
If I could ask Coco two questions, they would be:
Is anything in her life that she would do differently?
What was her favorite thing she ever designed?
I think that Coco valued hard work. I think that she believe if she wanted to succeed she had to work hard. I absolutely agree with that mentality. I know that you have to work hard for what you want. Things are not just going to be given to you in life. Coco didn't let anything hold her back.