Born in the French Village of Saumur, Val de Loire (also famous for the wines and the castles) in august 19, 1883, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel (1883-1971) may have very well been the most influential and innovative fashion designer to date.

As Christian Dior would say: 'With a black pullover and ten rows of pearls she revolutionized fashion'

Not only Chanel is known for her No 5 fragrance, but she also left her print in the fashion industry with her classic and timeless suits, shoes, purses and jewelry. Her designs helped define women's fashion.

Coco Chanel was one of the kind, way ahead of her time, and way ahead of herself.

She had the magic of giving a new turn to the design industry 80 years ago. Her recipe was to mix up the ying and the yang, the essence of masculine and feminine clothes and to create fashion that offer the wearer a feeling of hidden luxury rather than ostentation. Her taste and sense of style overlap with today's fashion in the majority of the designers’ philosophy.

She appropriated styles, fabrics and articles of clothing that were worn by men but also, starting with how she dressed herself, appropriated sports clothes as part of the expression of fashion. One can see how her style evolved out of necessity and defiance. Because she couldn't afford the fashionable clothes of the period, she rejected them and made her own, using sports jackets and ties that were everyday male attire of the world where she was climbing her first social ladders.

Gabrielle Chanel spent her childhood in the Aubazine orphanage with the nuns after her mother died and her father ran off. Then, she went to a convent in Moulins at 17 years old. When she finally left the convent, she tried a career as a cabaret singer. She was very charming but her voice was not in the rhythm of the time.

Then she met Etienne Balsan, a playboy who would finance her move to Paris and the opening of her first hat business.

In 1912, she met the wealthy socialite, Arthur 'Boy' Capel who helped her open her first hat shop in 1913. But her real break came in the early '20s during the Great Depression when Chanel, with the financial help of Capel, opened her first and now legendary shop at 31 rue Cambon. Then Arthur ('Boy') helped her to expend her business from hats to clothes and from Paris to the coastal resorts of Deauville and Biarritz. One of her first successes was the loose-fitting sweater, which she belted and teamed with a skirt.

In 1931, Samuel Goldwin hired Chanel for one million dollars to dress his stars, including Katherine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Gloria Swanson. This did not last long as many starlets refused her service. Later that decade, back in her hometown, Chanel designed and developed an array of costume jewelry inspired by the 'art deco' movement of the '30s.

So naturally, she became associated with the modern movement that included Picasso and Jean Cocteau. Like these artistic protagonists, she was determined to break the old formulas and invent a new way of expressing herself. Jean Cocteau once said that 'she has, by a kind of miracle, worked in fashion according to rules that would seem to have value only for artists'.

During the World War II. Chanel shut down her fashion business. In fact, in 1939 after the fall of Paris, Chanel closed all her boutiques and spent the next fifteen years of her life living in Switzerland exiled, due to her love affair with a Nazi officer. In 1954, Chanel decided to revamp her '30s designs. Some say that the popularity of Dior's 'new' corseted look disgusted Chanel and woke up her dormant inspiration. Once again, Chanel's designs flourished and she now was embraced by Hollywood starlets.

Lagerfeld (who designs Chanel today) points out, 'By the 50s, she had the benefit of distance, and so could truly distill the Chanel look. Time and culture had caught up with her.'

In fact, Chanel spent much of the '50s' and '60s' working for various Hollywood studios, dressing the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Liz Taylor. During this time her clothing became very popular, especially in the United States.

By the time Katharine Hepburn played her on Broadway in 1969, Chanel had achieved first-name recognition and was simply Coco.

Chanel was often photographed holding a cigarette or standing in front of her famous Art Deco wall of mirrors. Fashion tends to involve a good dose of smoke and mirrors, so it should come as no surprise that Gabrielle Chanel's version of her life involved a multitude of lies, inventions, cover- ups and revisions.

Certainly her life was unpredictable. Even her death in 1971, at the age of 87 in her private quarters at the Ritz Hotel where she often stayed.

See also Major Events in the fashion industry and addresses of the famous Designers in Paris