Although Mademoiselle died in 1971, the classic Chanel suit is only one of the many brand signatures she devised that endure and endure and endure-les éléments éternels, as Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel designer since 1983, calls them. The quilted bag, pearls, gold chains and buttons, the camellia motif, two-tone shoes, a black bow, the groundbreaking Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle . . . all are symbols of Coco's "timeless modernity," as Lagerfeld put it.
She grew fond of inventing stories that glossed over the less glamorous truths about her childhood. Yes, she was a notorious fabulist-but the stories she spun seemed to become reality as she rose to the pinnacle of fashionable society. Among her circle of friends were José-Maria Sert, the Catalan artist and architect, and his wife, Misia, who in turn introduced Chanel to the likes of Stravinsky, Cocteau, and Diaghilev. The jolie laide designer's intellectual crew only contributed to her mystique. Her designs were unfussed, sometimes deceptively so, and the woman was as enigmatic as her work. She never married, but she was often on the arm of powerful, handsome, wealthy men, who helped her finance early efforts and guided the cultivation of important relationships, particularly during World War I.