by VERONICA HOWARD

Born August 19, 1883, Coco Chanel is one of the most famous fashion designers ever. She is famous because she was the first to make very comfortable and elegant clothing for women. Before her designs became popular, women had to fit into very tight, uncomfortable dresses to be considered fashionable. Some of her unique ideas were developed in World War I. For example she designed the little black dress because of all the deaths in the War and the Spanish flu epidemic, which forced widows to go out in black. Also during the War she made her fashions with cheap material but made each design with the same piece of material to avoid any color variation. Because of ideas like these her business survived the war and she went on to greater fame. She died January 10, 1971.

Coco Chanel and I have some similarities as well as differences. One way we are different is that she grew up in an orphanage after her mother died her father left to go to America. When he came back he had remarried and had another child. When Coco was 18 she left the orphanage and never saw her father again. I did not go to an orphanage and I live in America not France. Another way we are different is that she does not like designing fashions on paper, unlike me. She prefered to design them on a mannequin. We are also similar in some ways. For example we both like to design women’s fashions. Another example is that we both have four letter nicknames. She got her nickname after a song she sang at a dance club. My nickname, Nica, is part of my given name Veronica.

1. I am famous because I made comfortable and elegant clothes for women.
2. I am from France and my mother died when I was young. I went to an orphanage with my sister. When I was 18 I left the orphanage and became a seamstress.
3. The most significant event in my life was when I started my own company. It was the most significant event in my life because I was successful in doing so and I was tired of being told what to do. I want to make my own fashions and decisions.
4. I would tell them that it is ok to be different. You don’t have to blend in. I am successful because I was different and I wore plainer, but elegant clothes.
5. Most people don’t know that my real name is Gabrielle Chanel. I got my nickname, Coco, from a song I sang at a dance club, where it became my stage name.