Coco Chanel - 2008 Movie

So I decided to fill up a bowl full of a mixture of different flavoured Ben & Jerry's, and snuggle in a pile of pillows and a blanket and watch the 2008 film 'Coco Chanel'. Similar to 'Coco Before Chanel' another film night favourite of mine, its a film of course about the life and rise of 'Gabrielle Chanel'.  A relatively long film just over 2 hours, where I first watched back at school when I tried to find 'Coco Before Chanel' - at the end of the 2 hours you'll find yourself holding back the tears, and contemplating a really deep seated, intense tweet about friendship, perseverance, and most importantly

strength.

The film starts with crowds of people lined outside a Chanel store waiting to get inside for the first show after 15years out the game, however the viewers quickly get bored and uninspired and walk out - an extremely powerful message, a complete slap in the face. This represents a beginning of a fall from grace, is Chanel losing her respect, her place in fashion? We then begin the journey through Chanel's started with the death of her mother and the desertion of her father, we begin to create an emotional link to the film character of Chanel. We see the beginning of the rise of Coco, after a lucky break of a relationship between Chanel and the very wealthy Balsan, where she begins her true pursuit of developing her own shop, starting with hats - I found that costumes where well created and true to the period - and the contrast between the beliefs of Gabrielle and the rest of society, 'male' mostly, was worlds apart. 

Then we see it all crumble when Chanel needs to thrusts herself into the world with no support after sacrificing her job to be with Balsan, and we see her begin to rebuild. Again the use of costume and props were crucial as we see the how Chanel must sacrifice all she had created, even a fur shawl from Argentina bartered for a fraction of its true worth. Again we begin to build a further link with the character, our own personal feelings begin to sympathise with events of the movie. We see her pay blood and soul to create what she is truly passionate about. 

I have to say the finale seen, when the story is over where we've cried a little, we've cheered, and we've held our breath - the catwalk show took the spot for me. The costume for the show at the end was FANTASTIC. I found myself even wondering had they used real Chanel clothing, it was the true embodiment of Chanel style, they weren't trying to soft focus, reduce the time we saw each outfit - it was very well done. I found that they stayed true to the fact this was a true story about a fashion icon who truly left a massive chic footprint on the word of fashion and on the ideals of society. The last few seconds of the film we see Chanel standing and looking at her life long friend who had always been there, through heartbreak, through risk, through war, through everything life could throw, and holding hands with a business partner who nearly gave up on her then realised the true power & spirit of Chanel. I do suggest if you haven't seen the movie to see it, and I hope that you enjoyed the post and feel free to comment on your opinions on the film. 

RNW

The Fashion Dialogue