Coco Chanel
changed the course of
women's fashion
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was one of the 20th century's most influential couturiers. A milliner by training, she moved beyond hats to become a rebel and a trailblazer of the fashion world, creating a new sartorial style that freed women from corsets and lace frills by offering them sailor shirts and wide-leg pants instead.
加布里埃尔·香奈儿是20世纪最有影响力的女装设计师之一。作为一名培训女帽匠，她没有止步于此，反而跃升成为时尚界的反叛者和开拓者，创造了一种新的服装风格，为女性们提供水手衬衫和宽腿裤子，将她们从紧身胸衣与蕾丝褶边中解放出来。
#Freedom
"Nothing is more beautiful than freedom of the body"
"Nothing is more beautiful than freedom of the body," she once said, and her designs lived by these words: Chanel's silhouettes were fluid and androgynous, her designs loose and -- in the case of her iconic little black dress, or LBD -- democratic. She wanted women to move and breathe in her clothes, just like men did in theirs. Her work was, in many ways, a form of female emancipation.
香奈儿曾说：“没有什么比身体的自由更加美了。”她在自己设计的作品中也充分展现这一理念：香奈儿衣服的轮廓流畅且无性别区分的，设计自由毫不约束——比如那件标志性的黑色小连衣裙就非常平等大众。香奈儿希望所有女性都能像男性那样，在穿上衣服后仍能灵活运动、自由呼吸。所以从许多方面来看，香奈儿是女性解放的一种形式。
As well as revolutionizing how we dress, Chanel helped form a new ideal of what a fashion brand could be: an all-encompassing force that could tend to all aspects of a woman's life, from formal attire to holiday wardrobes and evening ones.
除了彻底改变了我们的着装方式外，香奈儿还树立了时尚品牌的新理想：时尚品牌应该成为一股可以深入女性生活各个方面的整体力量，从正式的服装到度假衣柜和晚礼服。
Chanel captured her vision in "Coco-isms" that read like acerbic precursors of today's ubiquitous inspirational quotes -- "a woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future," or "If you're sad, add more lipstick and attack."
香奈儿的Coco主义体现了她的先锋理念，这些严肃的理念就像当今无处不在的励志引语的前身——“不喷香水的女人没有未来”或者“如果你难过，就涂抹更多的口红，发起攻击”。
#Women's trousers
She undeniably popularized them as a fashion garment.
Chanel didn't invent women's pants -- they had already entered wardrobes during World War I, when women started taking jobs traditionally carried out by men. But she popularized them as a fashion garment.
香奈儿并没有发明女裤——在第一次世界大战期间，当女性开始从事传统上由男性从事的工作时，女裤已经进入了衣柜。但不可否认的是，香奈儿的宣传让它们成为了一种时髦。
The designer liked wearing pants herself (she often borrowed them from her male lovers), and, as early as 1918, began sporting flowy "beach pajamas" while vacationing on the French Riviera. Drawing inspiration from the straight, wide cuts of sailor's pants, giving them a loose, comfortable shape, she matched them with oversized shirts or sleeveless tops.
香奈儿自己非常喜欢穿裤子（她经常向男性恋人借用裤子），并且早在1918年，她在法国里维埃拉度假时，就开始穿非常流行的“沙滩裤”。这是从水手短裤直截了当的剪裁中汲取的灵感，香奈儿把他们改成了宽松舒适的形状，并搭配超大的衬衫或无袖上衣。
The garment considered risqué at the time, due to pajamas' association with the bedroom, but by the mid-1920s it become a staple among wealthy ladies and a fixture of Chanel's collections.
由于沙滩裤常常是卧房之物，所以这套服饰在当时被认为是有伤风化的，但到了20世纪20年代中期，它已成为富有女性人手一件的单品，也成为必须收藏的香奈儿单品。
#Nautical tops
Chanel, however, turned them into fashion.
French sailors and fishermen had been sporting Breton tops -- striped sweaters made from tightly knit wool to protect them from the elements -- since the 19th century. Chanel, however, turned them into fashion.
自19世纪以来，法国水手和渔民一直在穿布列塔尼上衣，这是用羊毛紧密编织成的条纹毛衣，以保护他们免受风吹雨。然而，香奈儿把它们变成了时尚。
Striped pieces appeared in her boutique in the society resort of Deauville, Normandy, in the 1910s. She reworked them in jersey, giving them patch pockets and accessorizing them with thick belts. The nautical look was casual, and far less serious than the stiff aesthetic of the Belle Époque, quickly becoming a hit among stylish women both on and off the beach.
1910年代，位于度假胜地Deauville Normandy的香奈儿精品店里出现了条纹上衣。香奈儿重新加工了这些针织衫，为它们缝补口袋，并用厚皮带装饰其上。这样的水手风格非常随意，并不像贝尔时代里的僵硬美学那般严肃，因此很快就在海滩周围的时尚女性中流行起来。
Soon enough, Breton stripes could be found in the pages of both British and American Vogue. And even today, chances are you have some in your closet.
很快，布列塔尼条纹登上了英国和美国的Vogue页面。即便到了今天，它也依然出现在我们的衣柜里。
#Costume Jewelry
“A woman should mix fake and real"
Mixing the high with the low is common practice in fashion today. But it was considered radical when Chanel introduced costume jewelry to her collections, turning something considered cheap and tacky into a symbol of modern style (though her early rival Paul Poiret should be credited with pioneering the trend).
在今天的时尚界，高雅与低俗的混搭十分常见。但当香奈儿将便宜、俗气的服装首饰作为现代风格的象征引入她的收藏品时，人们认为这种行为非常激进。（虽然香奈儿不是第一人，她的早期竞争对手保罗·普瓦雷才是这个风尚的先驱者）。
"A woman should mix fake and real," Chanel once declared. "The point of jewelry isn't to make a woman look rich but to adorn her; not the same thing."
香奈儿曾经说：“女人的珠宝应该有真有假，珠宝的目的不是彰显富有，而是装饰女性，所以不一样。”
In the early 1930s, she collaborated with Italian jeweler Duke Fulco de Verdura to create what would become her iconic Maltese Cross cuffs, adorned with multicolored semi-precious stones. By the end of that decade, she was releasing signature necklaces made of dangling, dainty chains, and intertwined with faux pearls and glittering stones. More layered strings of fake pearls followed -- worn proudly by Chanel herself -- and a trend was born.
20世纪30年代初，香奈儿与意大利珠宝商杜克·富尔科·德·韦尔杜拉联合创作了标志性的马耳他十字袖口，上面装饰着五颜六色的珍贵宝石。到了三十年代末，她发布了由悬垂精致的链条制成的标志性项链，上面装饰着人造珍珠和闪闪发光的石头，并垂坠着一层假珍珠串。香奈儿非常自豪地戴着它们，引领了新的趋势。
#LBD
The little black dress
In 1926, Vogue published a drawing of a simple, calf-length black dress fashioned from crêpe de Chine. It featured long narrow sleeves and a low waist, and was adorned with a string of pearls. The magazine described it as "Chanel's Ford," referring to the at-the-time wildly popular Model T. In other words, it was a garment so simple it could be accessible to any shopper -- "a sort of uniform for all women of taste," as the publication put it.
1926年，Vogue杂志发布了一副黑色连衣裙的图画。裙子款式简单、裁剪至小腿长，袖子长而窄，低腰部，上面还装饰着一串珍珠。该杂志将其描述为“香奈儿的福特汽车”，对应的是当时广受欢迎的Model T汽车。换句话说，这是一件非常简单的裙子，任何人都可以买到——就如杂志所说：“一款适合所有女性品味的制服”。
During the Great Depression, the LBD became the outfit of choice for an entire generation of female consumers, and, in later decades, an essential part of women's wardrobe everywhere. Countless iterations and imitations have followed, but the understated elegance of Chanel's original number remains unmatched.
在大萧条期间，黑色连衣裙成为整整一代女性消费者的首选服装，并在后来的几十年中成为各地女性衣柜中的重要组成部分。尽管无数的迭代和模仿随之而来，但香奈儿的低调优雅仍然无与伦比。
#The Chanel suit
The Chanel suit was a game-changer
The Chanel suit was a game-changer -- not just for fashion but for women's sartorial liberation. Coco Chanel introduced her first two-piece set in the 1920s, inspired by menswear and sportswear, as well as the suits of her then lover, the Duke of Westminster. Keen to free women from the restrictive corsets and long skirts of previous decades, Chanel crafted a slim skirt and collarless jacket made of tweed, a fabric then considered markedly unglamorous.
香奈儿套装改变了游戏规则，不仅为了时尚，也为了女性的服装解放。20世纪20年代，香奈儿推出了她的第一个两件套，灵感来自男装和运动服，以及她当时的情人威斯敏斯特公爵的西装。香奈儿渴望将女性从前几十年的紧身裤和长裙中解放出来，于是用粗花呢做出了细长裙和无领夹克，这种面料在当时被认为非常不迷人。
The suit was modern, slightly masculine in its cut, and ideal for the post-war woman making her first foray in the business world. Its popularity continued through the years, and featured across collections from the house of Chanel, including those by Karl Lagerfeld. Some of the most influential women of all time wore the Chanel suit, too, from Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly to Brigitte Bardot and Princess Diana.
这套西装风格现代，剪裁略显阳刚，是战后女性在商界崭露头角的理想之选。它的受欢迎程度持续了多年，并出现在香奈儿家族的收藏品中，包括卡尔·拉格菲尔德的收藏品。从奥黛丽·赫本到格蕾丝·凯利，以及碧姬·巴多特和戴安娜王妃，这些有史以来最有影响力的女性也穿着香奈儿西装。
#Chanel No.5
smell like a woman, and not like a rose.
Chanel launched her eponymous No.5 perfume in 1921. A year before, so the legend goes, she had challenged French-Russian perfumer Ernest Beaux to create a scent that would make its wearer "smell like a woman, and not like a rose." The result was a mixture of 80 natural and synthetic ingredients, which Beaux presented her with a numbered series of perfume samples to choose from.
香奈儿在1921年推出了她的同名香水。据传闻，一年之前她让法俄调香师Ernest Beaux创造一种气味，让使用者“闻起来像一个女人，而不像玫瑰”。调香师最后混合了80种或天然、或合成的成分，向香奈儿提供了一系列可选择的香水样本。
She picked the fifth. The blend subverted the notion of fragrances as a symbol of high social class, instead pushing the idea that women could be multiple things: natural and artificial, provocative and pure.
香奈儿选择了第五个。这种混合气味颠覆了香水作为高级社会阶层象征的概念，推动了女性可以非常多元的想法：自然和人为的、挑衅的和纯洁的。
"It was what I was waiting for," Chanel later said. "A perfume like nothing else. A woman's perfume, with the scent of a woman." It was also one of the biggest and most successful branding exercises in the history of fashion. By placing her name conspicuously on every bottle and advertisement for her perfumes, Chanel forever linked them to the house's identity.
“这就是我在等的。”香奈儿后来说，“闻起来不像其他东西的香水，而只是女人的香水，有女人的香味。”No.5香水也是时尚史上最大且最成功的品牌活动之一。香奈儿将她的名字显眼地放在香水瓶子和香水广告上，将它们永远与品牌身份联系起来。
编译 | 李冰倩
排版 | 李冰倩