The incredible feeling of this interview: “It is happening TODAY”, “Nothing changed since 1959” Coco Chanel gives an expert opinion about style, copy, trend, meaning of the trend and fashion.
by RUNWAY MAGAZINE
Coco Chanel Interview 1959
“Coco Chanel gave this interview in 1959. The incredible feeling of this interview: “It is happening TODAY”, “Nothing changed since1959”… Coco Chanel gives an expert opinion about style, copy, trend, meaning of the trend and fashion.”
There’s something to be noted, but quite hard to translate: the language of Coco Chanel. When she speaks about fashion, she makes associations and uses different terms like a confectioner. She used many old-fashioned expressions of someone who used to work in a bakery making pastries. It is something of a personal note, making a very special touch to the character of this great woman. I personally would like to make a little addition to Coco Chanel’s opinion about the COPY in the fashion industry.
When she said it, the big houses in the industry were still in development and didn’t have the power to dispose of unknown designers they copied. When Coco Chanel expressed her opinion about COPY, it was still a sign of popularity; it meant that ladies at home tried to reproduce the trend and create something similar. It was not about massive financial profit or about casting aside or isolating a designer they reproduced. Coco Chanel knew only one side of the COPY; another side we know today.
Journalist:
“A definition of elegance… Oh, my God... it’s hard. You ask very difficult questions… What is elegance?.. Many things, you know… It involves a lot of things… Well… I will tell you, I can tell you what I keep repeating all the time… For me it is a fact, but perhaps not everyone understands. I find that women are always overdressed and they are never elegant enough.”
Journalist:
Mademoiselle, the dresses you created last year have been imitated or copied around the world. The tailors in almost every country have reproduced your designs in thousands of copies. The Chanel style went to the streets. Are you satisfied with it?
Coco Chanel :
Ha! I am delighted about it! Obviously, this is what I looked for. It was my goal to create a Style. And something more… In my opinion, there is no style in France. There’s a style in a nation, there’s a style when the people on the street dress like you… And I think I succeeded in making people on the street have my style. But I don’t believe in copying; I believe in imitation. It’s already good to be imitated.
Journalist:
Being imitated is even more important?
Coco Chanel :
It’s even more important… Copying is something very difficult, and it’s no longer in practice. You know, we chased all these little tailors… We made a lot of fuss to defend non-existent things… And it always seemed risky to me, which seemed the most ridiculous to me… And we want to defend in fashion… We can’t defend fashion… Why defend it? It’s not a trend if no one sees it. You understand? So there are a lot of stories like … I don’t know much about it… You didn’t ask me that question, but I’ll tell you this is another problem too. Not mine but the problem of Haute Couture… It’s the senseless fear of being copied. So for me, being copied is a success. There is no success without copy and imitation… It doesn’t exist!