Coco Chanel single-handedly revolutionised haute couture (and ergo all fashion) with her simple designs for the modern woman's lifestyle. She banished corsetry and the formidable stiff silhouette of the era in the process truly liberating women. "I gave women a sense of freedom; I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to fashion's finery, lace, corsets, underclothes, padding."
Coco Chanel designed clothes that would totally define the way we dress today and subsequently many of her classic creations are as popular as they were almost a century ago. In particular her suits, which comprised a knee-length skirt and boxy jacket traditionally made of woven wool with gold buttons, whose hem was weighted down with chain. Under the control of Karl Lagerfeld, the Chanel label has built upon its cult status and maintains its position as the ne plus ultra of French chic synonymous with elegance, wealth and elitism.