I recently watched Coco before Chanel (again) and realized that Chanel makes smoking look desirable. Seriously I think she made it appear chic…effortless…elegant.

This was of course recreated again and again throughout the movie by Andrey Tatou

Bad habits (in my opinion) aside Chanel was a dynamic woman way ahead of her time. Or perhaps simply out of time with the world in which she lived.

Inspired I drew a sketch. I wanted to practice illustrating leather especially after discovering these studded Chanel Boots. So here is my Coco along with the words of the one and only…..

“A woman has the age she deserves.”

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

“Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress. Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future. Elegance is refusal.”

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. Fashion fades, only style remains the same. Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.”

“Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity. Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.”

“Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity.”

“Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.”

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”

“There are people who have money and people who are rich.”

by Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971),  a pioneering French fashion designer