“Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.” - Coco Chanel

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was a milliner before she became a fashion icon. It wasn’t until the end of WWI when the designer began creating jersey knit dresses and sweaters. Her first true collection hit the stores in 1922 and she became known for simple elegance, keeping to classic colors and silhouettes in dresses and separates that were easy to style. Many credit Chanel for being the originator of the effortlessly chic staple, the little black dress. It was also in this early era when Chanel began using the quilted stitching technique popular in both vintage pieces and current Chanel runway looks. Coco Chanel kept expanding her line and designed up until her final days. In 1981 Karl Lagerfeld took over as head designer of Chanel and kept true to many of the iconic styles that the famous designer created decades earlier.