Wearable design

COCO CHANEL

In

1923, Coco Chanel said to H

arper's Bazaar that "Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance." Coco Chanel always kept the clothing s

he designed simple, comfortable and revealing. Unlike most designers in that Europe, she kept the woman inside the c

lothes at the center of her creations. "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."^[3] She took what were considered poor fabrics like jersey and u

r

pgraded them. Chanel's style is popularly associated with the image of the 1920s flapper, a "new breed" of self-confident young women that challenged the established concept of socially acceptable behavior. The flappers demonstrated their independence through new looks and attitude, such as short skirts and haircuts, openly using cosmetics, and being seen to smoke and drink cocktails. Compared to previous generations of women the flappers also showed an increased level of activity, pursuing athletic sports, driving their own automobiles, and going out to nightclubs where they could listen to jazz music and do energetic dances such as the Charleston.