Coco Chanel's Roaring Twenties

Tracing the origins and influences of the iconic French fashion house in the 1920s, from the Riviera to Paris.

The beginnings of Chanel's fashion brand lie in the French seaside resorts. In 1913, Coco--then still Gabrielle--Chanel opened her first boutique in Deauville, an upscale seaside resort just a few hours west of Paris. Soon after, she opened shops in Biarritz, Monte Carlo and Cannes. It was in these ritzy beach destinations that her simple, sporty designs first flourished. Here they were met with a cosmopolitan clientele who carried her fashion back to the capital city of Paris. In the 1920s, the Chanel brand thus experienced its first heyday, driven by the artistic and social upheaval of those years, now known as the Roaring Twenties.