Assignment 27: Reading Reflection No. 3

For this reading reflection, I read Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life by Lisa Chaney. This was, by far, my favorite book that I've read this semester! What a terrifically researched biography. 

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most? From the beginning of the book, I was surprised that Chanel had such a rough start to life. Her childhood and young adult life were so tragic it was almost like a soap opera. Many entrepreneurs have a sad, if not atypical backstory, so I guess I didn't expect her to come from a loving home with a white picket fence. Still, the story of her wayward father, her mother's untimely death, and her upbringing in a convent was entirely new to me. It made me appreciate her success that much more.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I think the quality of Chanel's I admired most was her love of work, not for money or fame, but for the freedom to do as she pleased. She grew up very poor and would depend on her many lovers for support along the road to success. I find her aspiration toward independence a sign of her emotional maturity and greatness as an entrepreneur.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?  During the occupation of France, Chanel returned to her salon on the rue Cambon and continued selling to regular clients. Many German officers visited her shop to buy bottles of her famous Chanel No. 5 for their women back home. Not only did she depend on these officers for business, but she even took a German spy as her lover for the remainder of the occupation. I suppose she was just doing what she needed to survive, but I think I'm justified in having a bad taste in my mouth about her after learning that she welcomed the Nazis into her salon and bed so readily.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Honestly, Chanel played the game right. She never really had to worry about financial troubles because she took various lovers who supported her endeavors as a milliner and, eventually, couturier. In this regard, she never truly faced any adversity or failure. While most entrepreneurs experience failure in the startup stage of their ventures, this is when she experienced the most success. Parisian society almost immediately took to her innovative designs. However, it was toward the end of her career that she experienced rejection. Her designs had failed to evolve with the times, and fashion critics began saying that hers was a fashion house of the past. Simplicity has always been the backbone of Chanel's style, so it would have been out of character for her to draw up new designs purely for shock factor. Nevertheless, her final collection wasn't terribly successful. Her only response was to reject those who called her designs stale and keep doing what she always did. I think this was smart since she left the next director of Chanel a clean slate to create new designs. Lagerfeld was presented with a simple set of tools (the little black dress, the women's suit, imitation jewelry, etc.) with which to propel Chanel into the future.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? At least when she was at the top of her game, Chanel had a keen eye for what was not only fashionable but timeless. She knew how to use her social capital to build her brand name and make the general populace more open to wearing atypical clothing. In fact, her goal was always to start her own business, and all her time as a kept woman was time spent making connections who would act as brand representatives for her in the future. I think her greatest asset was her ability to coordinate her human and social capital while building her empire. As an introvert, I also appreciate that she never met with customers, which sent the message that Chanel was an exclusive, sophisticated couturier, when in fact she was just too shy to go out onto the floor and talk to customers. Perhaps what most would see as a lack of competency was really a great competency for preserving her brand image. 

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. It's not exactly clear why, but Chanel was prone to contradictions in her recollection of her childhood and other aspects of her life. The author had to cite these contradictions in an attempt to clarify what is known of her story. Sometimes she would say that her dad was her hero, and sometimes she would say he was a deadbeat drunkard. Sometimes she would say that didn't care about fashion, and sometimes she would say that modern designers are ruining fashion. Her speech was full of these sort of contradictions. She many times tried to dictate her memoirs to different writers but would say that they weren't representing her story correctly when it was her who was lying about her past. I don't understand the reason for these falsehoods, and I don't think it did her any good in the long-run. For someone known by history as a woman who put it straight, she rarely did.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I'd have to ask her what she thinks of fashion now, simply because I think her answer would be amusing. Fashion leans much more toward shock value than classic simplicity now, so I imagine she'd have quite a lot to say about what's on the streets today. Second, I'd ask her how much of the Pinterest quotes attributed to her she actually said. I'm doubtful that Ms. Chanel ever said to "put on lipstick and attack," but who knows? (Probably not even Chanel herself, knowing her tendency to contradict herself and say clever things just for the fun of it.)

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? Chanel's life was defined by loneliness, and because of this, work became her first love. Many of her lovers and friends left her or died, often tragically, and she always knew that, at the end of the day, work would be the only thing left for her once everyone else had gone. Thus, she viewed hard work as her constant companion and a distraction from her utter solitude. Work was her way of coping more than anything else. My life is obviously nothing like Chanel's, but I do share her notion that hard work is the best way to take your mind off things. If I'm stressed, sad, or angry, I often turn to work to keep myself busy. In this way, I do share her opinion of hard work.