Gabrielle Chanel devoted her life to creating, perfecting and promoting a new type of feminine elegance. She designed for an active and emancipated woman, like herself, according to principles of comfort, simplicity and ease of movement. Chanel rewrote fashion conventions with personal conviction, transforming women’s wardrobes with her innovative ideas, pioneering approach to fabric and construction, and utmost consideration of the female form.

For Chanel, haute couture was both an area of experimentation – she worked directly on the mannequin, never sketching first – and a creative space, fuelled by her interactions with the artistic, intellectual and literary circles of her time. The strength and timelessness of her creations arose from an ability to harmonise function and form, marrying her design instinct with the quest for a new ideal grounded in the reality of women’s lives.

Throughout her career, Chanel’s design style became a template for modern living. She remade the ordinary as elegant, combined masculine and feminine, real and imitation, austerity and excess. Against the short lived novelty of contemporary trends, Chanel remained consistent and assured of the continuing relevance of her aesthetic, revealing the flexibility and force of a singular style.

嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿毕生致力于创造、完善和推广女性优雅的新风格。她的设计是为活跃、自主的女性（正如她自己）量身打造的，设计遵从了舒适、简约和便于行动的原则。香奈儿以个人信念改写了时尚惯例，用她的创新理念、对面料和结构的创意使用，以及对女性体态的最大考虑，改变了女性的着装。

对香奈儿来说，高级时装既是一个实验领域——她直接在人体模型上创作，从不先画草图；也是一个创意空间，她与当时艺术界、知识界和文化界的互动推动了她的创作。她作品中的力量和“永不过时”源于她兼顾功能和美观的能力，她将设计直觉与对女性现实生活新理想的追求结合了起来。

在她的整个职业生涯中，香奈儿的设计风格成为了现代生活的模板。她将平凡重塑为优雅，将男性与女性特质、真实与模仿、朴素与奢华结合了起来。在当代流行趋势不断推陈出新的背景下，香奈儿保持了风格的一致，并保持在审美上与时俱进，展示了她独特风格的灵活和力量。

Gabrielle Chanel began her career as a milliner, before opening boutiques in the French coastal resort towns of Deauville (1912) and Biarritz (1915), where she was inspired by the sense of liberty that characterised upperclass social life. The first to wear her own creations, Chanel produced designs that reflected her personal circumstances, taste and ambition. Loose slipovers, chemise dresses and sports clothes formed a gamine style that countered the restrictive fashions of the previous century with their stiff fabrics and complicated undergarments.

The hallmarks of Chanel’s style were simplicity, practicality and a relaxed elegance. Rejecting any superfluous ornamentation, Chanel designed balanced, straight forms that respected women’s bodies and allowed them to move with ease. She introduced an aesthetic of streamlined modernity to fashion that resonated with the dramatic changes to women’s social roles following the First World War. Chanel’s youthful designs, in fluid supple materials such as machine made jersey, were characterised by a surprising blend of minimalism and precision, laying the foundations for a new form of elegance that she defended throughout her career.

在职业生涯初期，嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿是一位女帽设计师，之后她在法国海滨度假小镇多维尔（1912年）和比亚里茨（1915年）开设了精品店。当地上流社交生活中特有的自由感，给予了她灵感。作为穿着自己作品的第一人，香奈儿设计的服装反映了她的个人境遇、品味和抱负。宽松的套头衫、直筒连衣裙和运动服构成的中性风格，冲击了上世纪时装中限制人的硬挺面料和复杂内衬。

香奈儿风格的特点是简约、实用和休闲优雅。香奈儿拒绝任何多余的装饰，设计了平衡、直观的版型，尊重女性的身体，让女性可以行动方便。她将流线型的现代美学引入了时尚界，这与第一次世界大战后女性社会角色的巨大改变产生了共鸣。香奈儿充满朝气的设计采用了机器缝制的针织面料等柔韧的材料，其特色是将极简主义与精确制造完美地结合在一起，这为她在整个职业生涯中坚守的新式优雅风格奠定了基础。

In the 1920s and 1930s, Chanel staunchly affirmed her own aesthetic choices and personal conception of fashion. Exhibiting a refined elegance, her designs were uncluttered, the materials fluid, lightweight and often monochrome. Her palette was subtle, and while black, white and beige dominated, occasionally more vivid tones such as midnight blue and fiery red appeared.

In her quest for simplicity, Chanel’s use of printed or embroidered decorations and patterns, was measured and restrained. Flowers, however, were an exception to the rule. Whether a single fabric bloom or fluttering petals, cut out and inlaid by hand, Chanel’s flowers conveyed an idea of natural youthfulness that was unanimously acclaimed by the press. Delicate chiffons and silk voiles printed with small or abstract floral motifs were produced by the Tissus Chanel factory, which the couturière established in the late 1920s.

Chanel’s suits and coats of the period were inspired by sportswear and borrowed from codes of male elegance and dandyism. Transforming techniques and materials previously foreign to haute couture, Chanel created casual outfits from common fabrics such as wool and tweed. Her garments were radical in their practicality, but also highly refined, with distinctive cut and proportions. From this tenuous equilibrium, Chanel developed a signature style that was immediately identifiable.

在二十世纪的二、三十年代，香奈儿坚守了自己的审美选择和时尚观。她的设计简洁、面料流畅轻巧，并且通常是单色的，展现出了一种精致的优雅。她的色彩搭配很微妙，虽然黑色、白色和米色占主导地位，但偶尔会有更生动的色调，如午夜蓝和火红。

为追求简洁，香奈儿对印花或刺绣装饰和图案的使用是慎重而克制的。然而，鲜花却是一个例外。无论是单个的织物花朵，还是由手工裁剪并镶嵌的飘动的花瓣，香奈儿的花朵传达了一种自然的、朝气蓬勃的理念，得到了媒体的一致好评。已是时装设计师的香奈儿在上世纪二十年代末设立了香奈儿面料工厂，生产精致的雪纺和丝质薄纱，上面印着细小或抽象的花卉图案。

这段时期香奈儿套装和外套的灵感来自于运动服饰，并借鉴了男装的优雅和时髦元素。香奈儿引进了以往对高级时装来说很陌生的技术和材料，用羊毛和粗花呢等常见面料制作休闲服装。她的服装有着激进的实用性，同时也非常精致，剪裁和比例都很独特。从这种纤美的平衡中，香奈儿塑造了她标志性的风格，一眼就能辨认出来。

In name, design and scent, CHANEL N°5 was a radical departure from convention. Created in 1921 for Chanel by perfumer Ernest Beaux, the abstract and mysterious scent differed from available fragrances, which often sought to emulate a single floral scent. A composite fragrance, Chanel N°5 contained no less than eighty ingredients. The alliance of flowers, including ylangylang, jasmine, rose de mai (R. x centifolia) and notes of wood and spice, accentuated by aldehydes – synthetic compounds used for the first time in large quantities – made for an indefinable formula.

Named after Chanel’s lucky number, its presentation was equally innovative. Contrasting the ornate decorative styles typical of the era, Chanel made use of a clear square bottle with sober, angular lines and simple typography. Enclosed within a minimalist white cardboard box with black contours, the graphic design possessed a revolutionary purity.

Designed as an extension of her clothing and echoing her vision of modernity, Chanel made N°5 the signature of her fashion house. Immediately successful, it soon became the world’s bestselling perfume. By the 1950s, a simple sentence – in the guise of an intimate confession from Marilyn Monroe – increased its renown and turned it into an iconic scent.

无论名字、设计还是香调，香奈儿5号都彻底背弃了传统。1921年，调香师恩尼斯·鲍为香奈儿创造了这款抽象而神秘的香水，与当时通常试图模仿单一花香的香水截然不同。香奈儿5号是一款复合型香水，含有超过80种成分。一系列的花香——包括依兰、茉莉、五月玫瑰（千叶玫瑰），以及木香和香料，再加上破天荒地大量使用乙醛合成化合物，这确实是一种难以名状的配方。

5号是香奈儿的幸运数字，该香水的包装设计同样独具创新。与当时典型的华丽装饰风格截然不同，香奈儿使用了透明方形香水瓶，冷清、棱角分明的线条和简洁的字体。包装是极简的黑棱白底纸盒，这一平面设计的纯粹度极富革新意义。

5号香水作为服装的延伸，与香奈儿对于现代感的理解相互呼应，也成为了香奈儿时尚品牌的标志产品。5号香水一经推出即获得成功，成为全球最畅销的香水。20世纪50年代，玛丽莲·梦露假借亲密告白而说出的简短语句，使5号香水更加知名，并成为了标志性的香水。

In October 1926, Chanel’s simple black, calf-length crêpe de chine dress caused US Vogue to declare the arrival of, ‘a sort of uniform for all women of taste, from all backgrounds regardless of their walk of life’. Dubbed the ‘Ford of Fashion’, after the popular American motor vehicle, Chanel’s little black dress, as it became known, was as universal in its appeal as it was transformative.

As early as 1919, Chanel had recast black as a stylish option for women that could be worn from afternoon through to early evening. Freeing it from an association with shop assistants and service, and earlier connections to mourning dress, Chanel promoted black as the ultimate symbol of modernity. Stripped of ornamentation, the colour drew attention to the line.

Although not the only designer to use black, Chanel employed it in an endless variety of forms throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and again in the 1960s. In line with her credo of minimalist simplicity, Chanel helped to equate black with elegance and understatement. Yet it was an understated luxury – differentiated by hand-sewn finishes, superior fabrics and construction techniques specific to haute couture. Today, the little black dress remains an archetype and one of Chanel’s major legacies.

1926年10月，美国《时尚》杂志宣称：香奈儿简洁的黑色及膝双绉裙“是一种适合各行各业、各种背景、品味各异的百搭女装”。香奈儿的小黑裙以美国的流行汽车福特命名，被称为“时尚界的福特车”。小黑裙魅力无边，带来的变革也是广泛深远的。

早在1919年，香奈儿就将黑色重新定义为女性的时尚选择，从下午到傍晚都能穿。黑色曾是店员和服务业的颜色，也曾是丧服的颜色，香奈儿将黑色解放了出来，将黑色定义为现代感的终极象征。朴实无装饰，单是颜色就能将人的注意力吸引到线条上。

虽然香奈儿不是唯一一位使用黑色的设计师，但在整个二十世纪二、三十年代，香奈儿反复使用了各种形式的黑色，并在60年代再次使用。根据她极简主义的信条，对香奈儿来说黑色等同于优雅和低调。然而这种低调也是奢华的——因其手工缝制装饰、高级面料和高级时装特有的制造技术而与众不同。如今，小黑裙依然是香奈儿时装的典型，也是香奈儿流芳百世的主要成就之一。

In the 1930s, Chanel’s focus on ‘line’ reached its peak. Her dresses discreetly accentuated the female form through harmonising proportions and materials. Motivated by sentiments of elegance and freedom, as well as her quest for simplicity, Chanel’s designs expressed the tension between garment and body, described in French as the ‘allure’.

Chanel’s evening wear demonstrated a subtle mix of inventiveness and classicism. She created fluid and romantic lace and chiffon dresses, with inlaid decorations inserted into the cut to better emphasise form. Without ever disrupting the line, she experimented with asymmetry, enveloping volumes, uneven lengths and, daringly, transparency – drawing from lingerie conventions. Chanel’s designs were seductive but never superfluous; frills were only slightly gathered, folds barely sketched, and swathes of fabric remained light and floating.

Chanel also utilised a unique array of embellishment techniques to imbue her designs with a stark luxury. In a gesture at once reductive and all encompassing, she covered the entire surface of sheer fabrics with beads or sequins, employing a monochrome palette to emphasise the austerity of the line. Earlier, this interplay between restraint and profusion was expressed via unicolour embroideries, feathers and fringing, but also in the nuance of hand-sewn details and specialist couture finishes.

二十世纪三十年代，香奈儿对“线条”的关注达到了顶峰。通过协调的比例和材料，她的服装设计谨慎地突出了女性的身体线条。香奈儿追求优雅和自由，也追求简单，她的设计表达出了服装与身体之间的张力，法语称之为“魅力（allure）”。

香奈儿的晚装展示了创新与古典主义的微妙嵌合。她创造了流畅浪漫的蕾丝和雪纺裙，在剪裁中加入镶嵌的装饰，以更好地强调形态。在不破坏线条的前提下，她尝试了不对称、突破重感常规、长短的不均匀，并大胆借鉴了内衣惯有的透明度。香奈儿的设计诱人心神，却从无多余；褶边只是轻轻堆叠，褶皱微不留痕，大片的面料仍然轻盈飘逸。

香奈儿还运用了一系列独特的装饰技术，为她的设计注入冷峻的奢华。她秉承简化、包容的理念，用珠子或亮片覆盖了透明面料的整个表面，采用单色的配色方案来强调线条的朴素。在早期，这种克制和丰富之间的相互作用通过单色刺绣、羽毛和流苏得到表达，但也通过各有不同的手工缝制细节和专业定制装饰来表达。

In 1954, aged seventy-one, Gabrielle Chanel reopened her fashion house. Repudiating the constraining ‘New Look’ style, she advocated for restrained chic and utility in clothing.

Chanel’s post-war suit, a synthesis of the principles that contributed to her prewar success, was the culmination of her vision of modern femininity. All aspects of its construction were defined with the female body in mind – a perfect balance of silhouette, materials and purpose. In 1959, Vogue Paris announced: ‘Every suit holds the secrets of Chanel luxury. And this luxury is in the details’.

The Chanel suit was the embodiment of freedom. Without padding, the lightweight jacket hung straight like a cardigan. The skirt, instead of hugging the waist, rested on the upper hips, tilting slightly backwards and hanging below the knee; it was comfortable, supple and allowed for greater ease of movement.

Fabric was also crucial. Tweed – plain and textured, or sometimes handwoven, was a hallmark, chosen for its luxurious feel and specially produced in a variety of shades. Trims and braids in contrasting colours added to the distinctiveness of the design and delineated the silhouette, while pockets, decorative and functional buttons, and a hidden gilt chain became further signatures.

1954年，71岁的嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿重开了她的时装店。她摈弃了拘谨的“新面貌”风格，提倡克制的时尚和服装的实用度。

香奈儿在战后设计的套装综合了战前使她成功的设计原则，是她铸造现代女性气质愿景的集大成之作。设计的所有方面都以女性身体的完美平衡来考虑轮廓、材料和目的。1959年《时尚》杂志巴黎版宣称：“每一套都蕴含着香奈儿奢华的秘密。而这种奢华就在于细节”。

香奈儿套装是自由的化身。没有衬垫，轻便的上衣像开襟羊毛衫一样笔直地垂着。裙子不是紧系着腰部，而是轻轻停在腰线上，微微向后倾斜，垂到膝盖以下；它是舒适、柔软和便于行动的。

面料也很重要。朴素而有质感的粗花呢（有时是手工织造的）是香奈儿套装的标志。粗花呢的奢华质感和特别生产的各种色调使之备受青睐。颜色对比鲜明的镶边和饰带增添了设计的独特性，勾勒出轮廓，而口袋、装饰性和功能性的纽扣、隐藏的镀金链后来也成为特色。

Accessories were fundamental to Chanel’s conception of a harmonious silhouette. They reflected her pragmatic vision of fashion and helped in the codification and unity of her style.

Launched in February 1955, the quilted 2.55 bag, was designed to be functional. Its chain link strap, often entwined with a leather band to avoid the jangling of metal, allowed it to be carried by hand or over the shoulder. The bag’s interior, lined with red leather or grosgrain, included multiple pockets where various items could be stored, including a compartment for lipstick. Made of lambskin, jersey or silk satin, the 2.55 was also available in three sizes to suit the different activities of a woman’s lifestyle.

From 1957 onwards, the two-tone slingback shoe completed the Chanel ‘look’ and added the ultimate touch of elegance to any outfit. After several trials with various shoemakers, Chanel adopted the model made by Raymond Massaro. A perfect balance of form and function, the shoe was made of beige leather, which had the effect of lengthening the leg, while its black satin ensured against wear and made the foot appear smaller. The elasticated strap and moderate heel guaranteed convenience and comfort.

配饰是香奈儿“线条和谐”这一理念的基础，反映了她对时尚的务实眼光，并有助于她设计风格的整编和统一。

1955年2月，香奈儿推出了菱格纹的2.55口盖包，设计初衷是为了实用。口盖包的金属链与皮链交缠，以免金属碰撞作响，既可手拿又能肩背。这款包的内部使用红色皮革或罗缎衬里，有多个口袋可供存放各种物品，包括一个放口红的独立口袋。2.55口盖包使用小羊皮、针织面料或丝缎制成，有三种尺寸可供选择，以配合女性生活中的不同活动。

从1957年起，这款双色调的露跟鞋为香奈儿的标志“形象”锦上添花，为任何服装增添极致优雅。在与多位制鞋大师进行了几次试验后，香奈儿采用了雷蒙德·马萨罗的模型。这款鞋的外观和功能达到了完美平衡，由米色皮革制成，具有视觉上延长腿部的效果，而黑色缎面不怕磨损，使脚看起来更小。松紧带和高度适中的鞋跟保证了方便和舒适。

As early as the 1920s, jewellery played a central role in Gabrielle Chanel’s design lexicon and was in contrast to the austerity of her clothing designs. Combining real and faux gemstones, pearls and metals in a variety of forms, Chanel rejected fine jewellery conventions to give costume jewellery a new status. She played with the contrast between sobriety and excess, wearing accumulations of ‘pearl’ strands and glass and rock crystal sautoirs in combination with earrings, bracelets and brooches, and encouraged others to do the same. Chanel also took liberties with placement, often pinning a brooch on the cuff of a sleeve, the hip or shoulder, or brim of a hat.

Chanel’s design references ranged from the historical, religious and exotic to floral forms, as well as personal motifs taken from her own symbolic repertoire: the lion (she was a Leo), ears of wheat and stars. Jewellery helped to establish the Chanel house codes and extended to the use of gilt chains and buttons. From the 1950s onwards, Chanel also introduced lurex lamé, a new fabric imitating metal, into her cocktail and evening wear. These sparkling fabrics echoed the glittering embroidery of her clothing from the 1920s and 1930s, with the advantage of being both light and flexible.

早在二十世纪二十年代，珠宝就在嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿的设计辞典中扮演着核心角色，这与她朴素的服装设计形成了鲜明对比。香奈儿将真的宝石、人造宝石、珍珠和金属以各种形式结合起来，摒弃精致的珠宝惯例，赋予了服装珠宝全新的地位。她叠加了珍珠项链和玻璃及水晶项链，并搭配耳环、手镯和胸针来突显冷峻和奢华的反差，并鼓励其他人效仿。香奈儿对于胸针的佩戴位置也肆意自由，通常将胸针别在袖口、腰间、肩部或帽檐上。

香奈儿的设计参考元素来自历史、宗教和异国情调，也有花卉形态以及从她自己的种种标志性元素中提取的个性图案：狮子（她是狮子座）、麦穗和星星。珠宝首饰成为了香奈儿品牌风格密码的一部分，并延伸到了镀金链和纽扣的使用。从二十世纪五十年代起，香奈儿还在她的酒会晚装和晚礼服中使用了有金属仿感的新面料——金银丝提花面料（lurex lamé）。这种光彩夺目的面料呼应了她在二十世纪二三十年代服装中闪闪发光的刺绣，其优点是既轻便又灵活。

To realise her creations, Gabrielle Chanel surrounded herself with talented jewellers whose innovation and skill matched her ambition. In 1924, she called upon the talents of Count Étienne de Beaumont to design her first costume pieces. Around 1933, she commissioned Fulco di Verdura to design gold jewellery with large-coloured cabochons that drew upon his Sicilian heritage and the splendour of Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, Italy.

Working with Maison Gripoix in the 1930s, Gabrielle Chanel developed jewellery inspired by the world of botany. Flowers, leaves, acorns and other motifs were transcribed into multicoloured glass paste, both opaque and translucent, and set in metal. During the same period, goldsmith François Hugo produced jewellery and buttons from non-precious materials for Chanel.

The expression of historical influences culminated in opulent pieces designed for Chanel by goldsmith and jeweller Robert Goossens. During the 1960s, Goossens found inspiration in art from the ancient empires of Byzantium and Persia. Mixing precious and inexpensive stones, Goossens introduced rock crystal and turquoise to Chanel’s design vocabulary. Using the forms, materials and cloisonné settings of antique jewellery, he even produced replicas of a Byzantine reliquary cross and an eagle-shaped ornamental clasp from the sixth century.

为将创意变为现实，嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿聘请了许多才华横溢的珠宝商，这些珠宝商的创意和技能都与香奈儿的抱负相合。1924年，她借艾蒂安·德·博蒙特伯爵之力，设计了第一批服装。1933年左右，她委托福尔柯·迪·佛杜拉设计带有大型彩色弧面宝石的黄金首饰，融合了佛杜拉的西西里文化传统和意大利拉文纳的精美拜占庭风马赛克风格。

二十世纪三十年代，嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿与梅森·格里波瓦合作，创作了一些珠宝，灵感源于植物世界。花朵、树叶、橡子和其他图案被制成彩色的玻璃浆，有不透明的，也有半透明的，镶嵌在金属中。同一时期，金匠弗朗索瓦·雨果用非贵重材料为香奈儿制作了珠宝和纽扣。

在金匠和珠宝商罗伯特·古森斯为香奈儿设计的奢华作品中，历史影响的表达达到了顶峰。二十世纪六十年代，古森斯从拜占庭和波斯帝国的艺术中获得灵感。古森斯混合了贵重和非贵重的宝石，让水晶和绿松石成为了香奈儿的设计元素之一。借鉴古董珠宝的形式、材料和景泰蓝特色，他甚至复制了一个拜占庭圣物盒十字架和一个六世纪的鹰形装饰扣。

Just as the suit was Gabrielle Chanel’s emblematic piece from 1954 onwards, the evening dress was her exercise in style. Chanel proposed a relaxed version of formal dress that was discreet and refined. Without ever straying from her principles, she revisited the foundations that had governed her aesthetic and punctuated her career.

In the 1960s, Chanel’s cocktail dresses, a compromise between day and night, recalled the simplicity of her little black dresses of the 1920s, executed in lace, velvet and silk, as well as nylon and other synthetic fabrics. As before, she offset austerity by adding whimsical touches of ornamentation – a gilded metal belt, or jewel illuminated with coloured stones.

In this spirit of continuity, sequin embroidery was profuse and monochrome, echoing the 1930s, while the lightness of chiffon and tulle embodied the qualities of fluidity and motion she had sought early in her career. Faithful to her hallmark colours, Chanel also continued to utilise ivory and gold, vibrant reds and elegant black.

Until her final 1971 spring–summer collection, Gabrielle Chanel never stopped reinterpreting, updating and perfecting her rules and principles. This consistency of vision, and her capacity to balance function, form and elegance, is what keeps her work timeless and relevant today.

正如自1954年以来的标志性粗花呢套装一样，晚礼服也是嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿对时尚的尝试。香奈儿设计了一种休闲版的正装，既低调又文雅。在绝不偏离自己原则的前提下，她重新审视了支配自己审美并贯穿其职业生涯的设计基础。

二十世纪六十年代，香奈儿的酒会晚装（介于日间装束和晚礼服之间的服装）令人想起她在二十年代设计的简洁小黑裙，由蕾丝、天鹅绒、丝绸以及尼龙和其他人造面料制成。和以前一样，她通过添加异想天开的装饰来平衡朴素的风格，比如镀金的金属腰带或彩色宝石装饰的珠宝。

为呼应一贯的风格，她使用了大量的单色刺绣亮片，与二十世纪三十年代的设计一脉相承，而雪纺和薄纱的轻盈体现了她在职业生涯早期寻求的流动感和动感。香奈儿坚持使用她的标志性颜色，继续选用象牙色、金色、充满活力的红色和优雅的黑色。

直至1971年的最后一个春夏系列，嘉柏丽尔·香奈儿不懈地重新诠释、更新和完善了她的设计准则。这种视觉上的一致性，以及她平衡功能、形态和优雅的能力，使她的作品经久不衰、直至今日仍然紧贴潮流。