132 Years Of Chanel: Her Best Quotes

Coco Chanel is arguably the greatest designer that ever lived, and were she still alive, she would have celebrated her 132nd birthday yesterday.

Credited with emancipating women from the restrictions of Victorian clothing (and everything that went before) Chanel is best-known for her chic, comfortable creations, designed for the post-war woman. Made up from cheap cloths, familiar to her from her impoverished childhood (she grew up largely in a convent for 'abandoned girls' in central France), Chanel borrowed from male fashions of the day. As TIME magazine reported in 1957, she 'put women into men’s jersey sweaters [and] created a simple dress based on a sailor tricot'.

Her simplistic style and all-round ingenuity, led to the iconic designs for which she is remembered – 2.55 handbags, that perfume bottle, the tweed suit...

But they are not all she is remembered for.

As has been well-documented, Chanel had a wonderful turn of phrase and an excellent sense of humour. So to commemorate the 132nd anniversary of her birth, we have collated a few of her very best comments...

On fashion...

"Fashion fades, only style remains the same."

"I don't do fashion, I AM fashion."

"Fashion is made to become unfashionable."

On women...

"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."

"Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress."

On success...

"Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable."

"Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door."

"Gentleness doesn't get work done unless you happen to be a hen laying eggs."

"I don't care what you think about me. I don't think about you at all."

On hardship...

"Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity."

On men...

"I don't know why women want any of the things men have, when one of the things that women have, is men."

"It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him."

On style...

"It is always better to be slightly underdressed."

"Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury."

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different."

"The best colour in the whole world is the one that looks good on you."

On beauty...

"Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty."

"A woman has the age she deserves."

On life...

"You live but once; you might as well be amusing."

"I’ve done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice."

"There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time."

[Quotes sourced from: brainyquote.com and goodreads.com]