French Fashion–Coco Chanel as a Feminist (Essay Sample)

French Fashion - Coco Chanel as a Feminist
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Fashion is universal and keeps on evolving across the globe. Each desires to look good within their social circles in life. A fashion that fills peoples' preferences and tastes have been a top-notch designers' priority in a different era. Fashion depicts a lot of features within the context where it is applied. For instance, it can serve as a non-verbal conveyance of an individual style, personality or to portray their background. Across the years, fashion has evolved from being associated with the affluent in society to being a common feature even for common citizens, especially youth. Through fashion, the youth can express themselves openly as it bestows upon them the feeling of boldness. Among the renowned fashion designer is Coco Channel who possess timeless design even relevant today. Coco started with designer perfume in the 1920s, which propelled her to greatness, and when she embarked on the Chanel suit, which became a trademark of quality across the globe. Coco fashion designs are most renowned for the emphasis on coming up with more comfortable clothes for her women clientele. It was her simple style but an oozing quality that has made her fashion designs relevant across different times of history in the fashion industry. This essay seeks to showcase how Chanel was a feminist designer using different designs she churned out specifically made to make women more comfortable when wearing them. Such inclinations when the gender topic was a hot topic drew much debate, with each side having proven facts to hinge Chanel as a feminist designer.[Riot, Elen. "Woman in love, artist or entrepreneur? The edifying, mystifying life of Coco Chanel." Society and Business Review (2013).]
Chanel's clothes encouraged liberation and individuality among women. The core goal of Chanel designers was to bring out the elegance in women, but she has sought to design clothes that defined the feminine nature of women and make them stand out in a rather chauvinist-driven world. It should be noted that the 1900s was characterized by different fronts championing women's rights. Such groups comprised radical and non-radicals, in which Chanel was a non-radical frontier. While the radicals championed women's rights via demonstrations and active means, people like Chanel used their art and influence to front the same. Chanel is credited to have revolutionized how women perceived their clothes and thus directly challenged them to live according to their rules. It is worth noting that Chanel lived when the world was dominated by the male-driven government that dictated the way of life. Most of the clothes were looked down upon by society as per the standards set by the government of the day. Chanel designers went against such odds and served the desire and preference of the women rather than the outdated social norms set by the chauvinistic driven administration. At such time, many of the fashion designers had complied with the existing order and never intended to question its consequences on the rights of women. Designers such as Chanel were bold enough to take the next step, and via their art, make their voices be heard by the feminine-oriented designers they made.[Marcangeli, Sveva. "Undressing the power of fashion: The semiotic evolution of Gender Identity by Coco Chanel and Alexander McQueen." (2015).] [Strassel, Annemarie. "Designing Women: Feminist Methodologies in American Fashion." Women's Studies Quarterly 41, no. 1/2 (2012): 35-59.]
Being a popular brand and influential, Chanel used such features to empower women. Through her fashion, Chanel was able to incorporate feminist concepts and also work to eliminate gender stereotypes bestowed on different types of women’s clothes. Her design oozed elegance and defined the feminist nature of her clientele base rather than following the norms set up by society. Across decades, pro-chauvinist advocates had dwelled on over-sexualization and gender sexism as the marketing techniques in the fashion industry. But such concepts had their drawbacks as they portrayed women as sex objects and not liberated to stand on their own. Chanel designs championed empowerment, a concept that she used to market her clothes in an industry trying to liberate the emancipation generation of the younger women. With women having an excess of sixty percent in consumer purchasing, incorporating empowerment drive into her fashion brand attracted many women to her clothe, propelling her to a top designer.
Chanel designers continue to receive much credit from women due to their feminine nature. Such fashion clothes desire to make women comfortable when wearing them as they bestow a bold look. The current days have seemed feminine movements such as #MeToo, which advocate for women to embrace designers with a touch of feminism