Coco Chanel invented a new silhouette, solidified the idea of casual chic, designed the perfect perfume bottle and through all this, created a global brand that would extend her fame beyond her own life. But she deserves equal credit for coming out with some of the best fashion one-liners in the game (in fact Karl Lagerfeld should not only be applauded for maintaining the house’s status at the top of the fashion world, but also his ability to pour forth fashion philosophy in the manner of his “alma mater”). On her would-be birthday, we present Chanel’s best quotes, which move from friendly advice to enemy-crushing egomania. Go Coco!
Don’t forget who’s the boss
“I don’t do fashion, I am fashion.”
“I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all.”
“My friends, there are no friends.”
“Dress like you are going to meet your worst enemy today.”
Give her a job at Central Saint Martins…
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
“Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.”
“Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”
…or a Swiss finishing school
“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”
“I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little—if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.”
“A woman with good shoes is never ugly.”
“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”
“A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.”
She’s a class commentator, of sorts
“There are people who have money and people who are rich.”
“Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.”
And a fashion sceptic…
“Fashion is made to become unfashionable.”
“Fashion changes, but style endures.”
…a stand-up…
“You live but once; you might as well be amusing.”
“All men are children, and if you understand that, a woman understands everything.”
“Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve.”
…and an agile wordsmith…
“Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.”
“Elegance is refusal.”
“The best things in life are free. The second-best are very expensive.”
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”
HBD Coco!