英语名人堂：加布里埃·香奈儿

加布里埃·香奈儿（Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel），1883年出生于法国的索米尔（Saumur）。法国时装设计师，香奈尔品牌的创始人。[1-2] 

加布里埃·香奈儿，6岁时母亲离世，父亲更丢下她和4个兄弟姐妹，由她的姨妈抚养成人。1914年，Coco开设了两家时装店，影响后世深远的时装品牌Chanel宣告正式诞生。1954年，Coco重返法国，以她一贯的简洁自然的女装风格，迅速再俘虏一众巴黎仕女。1983年，香奈儿逝世后，香奈儿集团由Karl Lagerfeld接班出任时尚总监，但至今每一季新品仍以香奈儿精神为设计理念。[1] 

加布里埃·香奈儿，现代主义的见解，男装化的风格，简单设计之中见昂贵，成为20世纪时尚界重要人物之一。她倡导女权，品牌经典的2.55手袋就起源于香奈儿决心用细链条来解放女性拿包的双手。她对高级定制女装的影响令她被时代杂志评为20世纪影响最大的100人之一。[2-4] 

加布里埃·香奈儿的个人名言——“愿我的传奇常留世人心中，永远鲜明如新“。

 

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was born in France in 1883 and died in 1971. She was a pioneering fashion designer who revolutionized women’s fashion. She designed modern and simple clothes that were often based on menswear. She was so important that she was the only designer named in ‘Time’ magazine's list of the 100 most influential¹ people of the 20th century.

 

Chanel had a very poor upbringing. Her mother worked in the poorhouse where Gabrielle was born. She died when Gabrielle was six and then her father abandoned her. She adopted the name Coco while she was a cafe singer in 1905. Two lovers funded her first store in Paris in 1910. They also helped her hats become popular with rich women.

 

In the 1920s, Chanel rose to become Paris’ top fashion designer. Her comfortable, yet elegant clothes were popular across Europe. Women found her mannish clothes to be liberating². In 1922 Chanel introduced her perfume, Chanel No. 5, which is still highly profitable. Her famous Chanel suit has also stood the test of time and is part of the modern woman’s wardrobe.

 

At the beginning of World War II she moved into the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which became her home for 30 years. During the Nazi³ occupation of Paris she had a lover, a German spy. This relationship made her unpopular for a decade after the war. Her 1954 collection did badly in France. Today, however, her name is the biggest in fashion.

1 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

2 liberating   

解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
• They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中，他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

3 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。