Potholes and Mountains: Studying the Life of Coco Chanel
"Faulker said, 'The past isn't dead, it isn't even the past,' and nowhere is this more true than for the self-made. In our modern collective hysteria over celebrity - and the superpower we believe it confers - we completely forget that every single day every one of us still has to get up in the morning, get dressed, brush our teeth, and slay our particular dragons." - Karen Karbo
Coco Chanel's life story is captivating. Her life reflects the zeitgeist of seven robust decades. I find myself completely absorbed while studying it.
Yesterday I finished Karen Karbo's The Gospel According to Coco Chanel, shaking my head laughing. The book ends with Chanel launching her comeback line after World War II - when she was 70 years old. Seventy! She was launching a fashion line when some women are taking their teeth out at night.
This week I also re-watched Coco before Chanel. (Read my review of the film in The Hard Truth about Entrepreneurship). The film focuses mainly on Chanel's early life. Her days in an orphanage, then as a seamstress and bawdy cabaret singer.
Reading this biography I got a more robust picture of her unique struggles as an entrepreneur. What allowed her to bust out of the seams of ordinary life (excuse the sewing pun) is the very thing that led to a sad personal ending (including a love affair with a Nazi during World War II). It's a devastatingly beautiful life to study.
Careful what you give away Chanel is often held up as the standard for how to achieve fame and fortune in the fashion world, but she made mistakes. I think we can learn from this one.
Karbo writes, "She had business sense, but no business education. She tossed her business card in his direction and said she'd be happy with 10 percent, but that otherwise she didn't want to be bothered [...] At any rate, Chanel was hosed. Chanel No. 5 would become the best-selling perfume in history."
A woman like Chanel - entrepreneurial powerhouse though she was - gave up 90 percent of her company on the back of a business card! (And she never got it back.)
There's a lesson in this. I'm sure I don't need to spell it out.
Keep your money and relationships separate Chanel never married. She had a string of moneyed lovers throughout her long life. A few of them helped her out with money here and there. But overall, Chanel kept her finances and her men separate.
In her chapter (worth the price of the book) "On Money," Karbo asks, "But even if the prince is saddling up his white steed at this very moment, double-checking the stirrups and his investment portfolio, readying himself to gallop into our lives and fork over endless dough for our hair appointments, car insurance, and flatware, what if he's late? What if he gets here and changes his mind? What if we change our minds? That's the problem with waiting to be saved. [...] And if you have a temperament even remotely similar to that of Chanel's (exacting, luxury loving, and unwilling to settle), you're in a bind."
Is Chanel a relic of a lost time? Yesterday I asked if there were any questions about Chanel's life. Marissa Bracke asked:
Is Coco a relic of a lost time? That is, in a world where the Game Changers keep appearing and disappearing every few years and our collective memories and attention spans seem to be ever shortening, are there now or will there be Coco Chanels of the digital entrepreneurial age--timeless, fascinating beyond the years, long-remembered legacies?
This is a provocative question. I think anyone reading this wishes the answer here were "yes."
And perhaps in that you have your answer.
Fame meant something different during Chanel's era than it does now.
Karbo writes, "... it would be disingenuous to suggest that all it takes is a little elbow grease, a rabbit's foot, and the love of a good man with a lot of moola to achieve the rarified success that Chanel enjoyed. If you're an aspiring Project Runway contestant and have opened this book to find some tips on how you, too, can one day be named the most influential designer in the history of fashion, then I'm afraid I will fail you. There will never be another Chanel. Which doesn't mean the nature of her stupendous right-place/right-time success isn't worth investigating. Over the years fashion historians who are not fans of Chanel have routinely sneered about her impulse for self-promotion, forgetting that she wasn't simply putting Coco Chanel forward, she was also propagating real ideas."
We're all the stars of our own shows now. Two years ago you'd see an occasional post on personal branding (I even wrote a feather ruffler or two). Now, they're everywhere.
I noticed something fascinating today on the beach. People walked onto the beach, took a photo, turned around and left. Taking a photo now is part of the process of documenting our lives - you can say, "I did that. Look." The number of websites dedicated to "lifestreaming" and "livestreaming" and documentation of every aspect of our daily lives swells even as I write this post.
In Chanel's time, you had to actually do something spectacular (usually more than once) to achieve fame.
Now, whether we like the idea or not, it is possible (and even preferable, somehow) to be famous for being famous.
I believe, yes, Chanel is a relic of a past time. But that shouldn't stop us of from putting a mighty effort into creating. In fact, perhaps we need a Chanelian work ethic now more than ever before.
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"Chanel famously refused to live in the past, or admit it even existed. Even when it came to her dresses, once she had created it, she forgot about it. [...] The problem with this, of course, is that as you get older the past starts piling up like dirty laundry in a fraternity house. The future shrinks, the past grows and to refuse to develop a relationship with it is to cut off increasingly larger chunks of who we were and what our life has meant." - Karen Karbo
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Further reading
Elle: Coco Chanel's 125th Birthday
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Reader Comments (8)
Interesting post Gwen.
Didn't know Channel had all of these struggles or lived such a life. I like her even more. It gives her some grit and I can see why you are interested in researching her life. On second thought, I think you've just inspired me to do a little research myself. :)
Keep up the inspiration and sharing Gwen.
More to come from me on Coco Channel.
In a world where it's relatively easy to become famous for being famous, I have a feeling the old-fashioned way is more necessary than ever if you want to get past all the distracting lifestreams and the like. Someone who manages to do something over and above everyone else multiple times, who can develop and maintain that kind of focus in an environment where everyone is caught up in posting every minute of their lives, would blast through most of this.
Most of the current game changers, as in Marissa's question, are more incremental than revolutionary, given the fluid nature of the online "game"; that probably includes you as well, no offense. In that sense, "game changer" is almost certainly an overused term. These game changers seem to be working with what's there, primarily, whereas Chanel practically redesigned the game from the ground up in her own image. That's a whole different scale.
Great review! If the job of the reviewer is to inspire the audience to read the book, you've succeeded.
Thank you especially for including the point about Chanel launching a clothing line at age 70. I've just decided to commit myself to a career change - starting over in a competitive business at age 40. I know times are different now, but it gives my idealistic little heart hope anyway.
Thanks for the thoughtful answer on my question, and for a great post on the book. I've added it to my reading list.
This topic will continue churning in my head. Part of the quote you included from the book ("... forgetting that she wasn't simply putting Coco Chanel forward, she was also propagating real ideas.") sparked my wonder that perhaps that's part of what's missing--propagation of real ideas. Not slick repackaging or, as you note, fame for fame's sake, but the courage to invent and lead with one's "real ideas."
Which also gives rise to the question of whether we have time for that anymore. Inventing, from-the-ground-up creation and self-establishment, and making a name for oneself based on the substance of one's actions or thoughts takes time. Chanel wasn't an overnight success. She wasn't even an "overnight success" with appropriate air quotes, as we sometimes think of it--where three years of hard work is considered hefty toil and the toiler says, "Well, I wasn't just an 'overnight success,' you know"--she invested most of her life in creating what became her legacy. That just isn't done anymore... we want faster, more readily accessible measures of success, and I think many of us are very comfortable with the exchange of lasting legacies for faster and more fleeting success.
I don't think "15 minutes of fame" was originally intended as a goal. Now, it is. And Coco Chanels simply aren't fashioned (pun intended) in 15-minute increments.
I'll continue to mull this--and thank you for the fodder for the mulling!
Thank you for such a considered post. I saw the film around the same time as you and honestly didn't quite see as much as you took from it, but you've really inspired me to read the biography and find out more about her. (Not that that will be any time too soon, but it's on the list!)
Amazing post. There's so much I want to comment on, but I'll go with the idea of how we're losing true leaders or role-models. Have you looked at the writings of Jaron Lanier? He's got a book coming out, so I've been seeing him here and there. It's much, much heavier reading, and he's a bit of a character, but if you can get through it, there's some gems that speak to some of the same themes you talk about above in terms of the failability of the mass of crowds and hive mind. A good quote from him:
In this regard, blogging is not writing. It's easy to be loved as a blogger. All you have to do is play to the crowd. Or flame the crowd to get attention. Nothing is wrong with either of those activities. What I think of as real writing, however, writing meant to last, is something else. It involves articulating a perspective that is not just reactive to yesterday's moves in a conversation.
Maybe it's only loosely related, but thought you might appreciate it.
I added the Coco book and movie to Amazon and Netflix, by the way. Can't wait to read and see it.
I read this book called "Flapper" that said Coco was so influential, because she loosened women from the restraints of the man-made corsetry that plagued them and put them in suits and menswear for leisure and comfort.
It was very eloquent, and I've probably got 4-5 books in my Amazon wishlist about her, waiting to be devoured.
Hey Gwen - I wanted to let you know that I finally started reading this lovely book on my iTouch and LOVE it! Thanks for the book recommendation and review. :)