Discover discount prices on many lovely fragances. Lots of top perfume names to choose from, Clavin Klevin, Christian Dior, Chanel, Estée Lauder, find exactly what you like and save.

Coco

Home

Armani

Avon

Bijan

Bvlgari

Cartier

Cerruti

Chanel

Allure

Allure Sensuelle

Chance

Coco

Coco Mademoiselle

Cristalle

No. 19

No. 5

Other

Chantilly

Charlie

Chloe

Chopard

Christian Dior

Clarins

Clinique

Comptoir Sud Pacifique

Coty

Creed

Davidoff

Demeter

Diesel

DKNY

Escada

FCUK

Fendi

Gap

Giorgio of Beverly Hills

Givenchy

Gucci

Guerlain

Guess

Halston

Hermes

J Lo

Kenzo

Lacoste

Lalique

Lanvin

Lucky

Prada

Revlon

Rochas

Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely

Tiffany

Makeup

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (August 19, 1883 â€“ January 10, 1971) was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her arguably the most important figure in the history of 20th-century fashion. Her influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Life

Gabrielle herself presented a lot of versions of her childhood. In fact she had a very poor upbringing. However, it seems certain that she was born as the second illegitimate daughter to the traveling salesman Albert Chanel, waste exterminator, and his lover Jeanne Devolle in the small city of Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. Her parents married in 1880. She had five siblings: two sisters, Julia (born 1882) and Antoinette (born 1887) and three brothers, Alphonse (born 1885), Lucien (born 1889) and Augustin (born 1891), who died after a few months. In 1895, when Gabrielle was 12 years old, her mother died; her father abandoned them a short time later. The young Gabrielle spent 7 years in the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she learned the trade of a seamstress. After affairs with generous wealthy men â€“ a military officer and later an English industrialist â€“ she was able to open a shop in Paris in 1910 selling ladies' hats, and within a year moved the business to the fashionable Rue Cambon.

In 1921 Chanel No. 5 perfume was introduced by Chanel. The perfume was the first to be sold worldwide, and its bottle's straight lines stood out from the other flamboyant perfume bottles of the time. The No. 5 in Chanel No. 5, is said to be Coco's lucky number, however it was actually chosen as it was the fifth sample of possible perfumes. Pierre Wertheimer became her partner in the perfume business in 1924. Wertheimer owned 70% of the company; Coco Chanel received 10% and her friend Bader 20%. Oddly enough, Chanel No.5 became a thorn in Coco's side as she received very little income from its success. The Wertheimers continue to control the perfume company today. In the late 1950s Marilyn Monroe revealed that Chanel no.5 was her favourite perfume. A bottle of Chanel no.5 is sold every 30 seconds.

The influential Chanel suit, launched in 1923, was an elegant suit comprising a knee-length skirt and trim, boxy jacket, traditionally made of woven wool with black trim and gold buttons and worn with large costume-pearl necklaces. Coco Chanel also popularized the little black dress, whose blank-slate versatility allowed it to be worn for day and evening, depending on how it was accessorized. Although unassuming black dresses existed before Chanel, the ones she designed were considered the haute couture standard. In 1923, she told Harper's Bazaar that "simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance."