There are many famous people in the fashion industry. Coco Chanel was one of them.
You are going to read her biography here and answer questions on it.
Discuss with a partner:
Do you know the name (Coco) Chanel? What for?
Before reading the text, do the following exercise.
It contains difficult words from the text.
Write words you do not know down in your notebook.
They will help you understand the text.
Now read the text and indicate whether the statements are true or false.
![]() Chanel had a very poor upbringing. Her mother worked in the poorhouse where Gabrielle was born. She died when Gabrielle was six and then her father abandoned her. She adopted the name Coco while she was a café singer in 1905. Two lovers funded her first store in Paris in 1910. They also helped her hats become popular with rich women. In the 1920s, Chanel rose to become Paris’ top fashion designer. Her comfortable, yet elegant clothes were popular across Europe. Women found her mannish clothes to be liberating. In 1922 Chanel introduced her perfume, Chanel No. 5, which is still highly profitable. Her famous Chanel suit has also stood the test of time and is part of the modern woman’s wardrobe. At the beginning of World War II she moved into the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which became her home for 30 years. During the Nazi occupation of Paris she had a lover, a German spy. This relationship made her unpopular for a decade after the war. Her 1954 collection did badly in France. Today, however, her name is the biggest in fashion. |