VOA标准英语2011--Iconic Designer Coco Chanel Still Inspires

Iconic Designer Coco Chanel Still Inspires

 

Coco Chanel was one of the world's all-time great couturiers. She died in 1971 at the age of 87. Her rags-to-riches tale inspired films, plays and television series. Book authors have also found her story worth researching.

"Coco Chanel: The Legend and The Life" is the newest book to explore the Chanel mystique.

“She was born illegitimate," author and fashion writer Justine Picardie says. "Her father was never really around. He wasn’t very responsible.”

Despite his absence, Chanel's father had a profound influence on her.

“Her father was an itinerant¹ market trader always on the move," Picardie says. "He sold buttons and ribbons, some of the elements which you then see in Chanel’s designs.”

Chanel's mother died when she was 11 and her father put her in an orphanage², which is where Chanel learned to sew.

“She also discovered the elements of what was to make her a great designer, that mix of darkness and light, white and black." she explains. "The pearls, which is so much a part of Chanel's style, which seem very much reminiscent of the rosary beads³ the nun⁴ wore, the chains around the nun’s waist. There are still tiny chains sewn in the bottom of every Chanel jacket."

Archive image of pioneering French fashion designer Coco Chanel (left) with actress Romy Schneider in Paris, France, in 1960.

After leaving the orphanage, Chanel worked as a cabaret singer. With money from a lover, she started a hat making business in Paris. According to Picardie, clients loved the clothes Chanel wore and wanted the same things.

“At that time women were still wearing corsets," she says. "They were wearing dresses they couldn’t breathe in, let alone walk in, run in, work in. Chanel stripped away corsets, also sort of unnecessary adornments- that huge feathery flower trimmed hats and the very, very bright, almost clashing colors.”

It was Chanel who introduced one of the 20th century’s most iconic fashion concepts: the little black dress.

Drawing on interviews with surviving acquaintances, relatives and employees, as well as Karl Lagerfeld, current creative director of Chanel, Picardie believes she was able to capture the real person behind the Chanel legend.

"Coco Chanel: The Legend and The Life," by Justine Picardie, explores the iconic designer's lasting5 appeal.

"She was a mass of contradictions, at times was very unhappy and very lonely," she says. "There were other periods of great joy and a sense of huge achievement in her life. But I think that the abandonment that started with her father was to repeat itself. And, at the end of her life, although she had a couple of very close friends, she neverthless died feeling very alone."

Picardie makes light of Chanel's World War II collaboration⁶ with the German occupiers of Paris.

“She became involved with a German during the occupation of Paris," Picardie says. "He was a double agent working for the British as well as the Germans.”

But according to Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the International Herald⁷ Tribune, none of this is new information.

“There were persons who were wonderful and helped. There were others who collaborated⁸ and it’s certain that Coco Chanel herself was a collaborator," she says. "But you know the company itself has been, for the last 40 years, run by a Jewish family. I don’t think people take that against the company.”

But it was held against Chanel when she returned to Paris in 1954 - from self imposed exile - says Picardie.

Coco Chanel designed her own logo.

“The French fashion press gave her terrible reviews, probably to punish her," Picardie says. "It was a very brilliant collection; these tweed jackets, the jersey⁹ jackets and soft suits."

In the 1950s and 60s, Chanel was at the top of her game.

“She started dressing¹⁰ everybody from Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe," she says. "Chanel also dressed Jackie Kennedy."

Menkes adds, "Chanel’s secret is that clarity, that modernity, it’s just the signage of the word ‘C’, and somehow to me it looks very forward thinking, very modern, very dynamic. Certainly the brand was very well managed since she herself passed away. Karl Lagerfeld has certainly rejuvenated¹¹ Chanel and continues to do so."

Menkes says that’s why Chanel is still an iconic brand. The designer lives on as inspiration itself.

1 itinerant   

adj.巡回的；流动的

参考例句：

• He is starting itinerant performance all over the world.他正在世界各地巡回演出。
• There is a general debate nowadays about the problem of itinerant workers.目前，针对流动工人的问题展开了普遍的争论。

2 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

3 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

4 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

5 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

6 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

7 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

8 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

11 rejuvenated   

更生的

参考例句：

• He was rejuvenated by new hope. 新的希望又使他充满了活力。
• She looked rejuvenated after plastic surgery. 她做完整形手术后显得年轻了。