In London Article

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ESCAPE CHANEL’S PARIS

IMAGES: COCO CHANEL SUITE INTERIOR AND DETAILS COURTESY OF HOTEL RITZ PARIS © FABRICE RAMBERT

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Follow in the fashionable footsteps of iconic designer Coco Chanel and see Paris through her eyes, says Victoria I. Sanchez

Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in a workhouse in Saumur, France in 1883 (though she would later attest to having been born in 1893 in Auvergne), Coco Chanel’s passage to greatness began when her father relinquished her to the care of a Catholic orphanage after her mother’s death. It was here that she learnt to sew and, on leaving the orphanage, was able to take up a position with a local tailor.

After a whirlwind of love affairs – most notably with French socialite Étienne Balsan and English playboy Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel, who helped finance her first millinery business and her expansion into fashion – Chanel would go on to become a living legend.

Believing that “Fashion is not simply a matter of clothes. Fashion is in the air, born upon the wind. One intuits it.

It is in the sky and on the road,” it is rather fitting that, in a jaunt around the City of Light, you’ll find the designer’s legacy lives on.

A FASHIONABLE LIFE

Hôtel Ritz Paris is synonymous with Chanel and is the very embodiment of her exquisite taste. The Mademoiselle’s home and sanctuary from 1934 to 1971, and the scene of her death from a heart attack aged 87, The Coco Chanel Suite has been painstakingly recreated from period photographs to reflect how it would have looked when the famed designer resided there. A monument to her style and grace, it boasts two bedrooms, a sumptuous living room, and has the distinctive mark of Chanel’s panache in every piece of furniture and ojects d’art.

15 Place Vendôme, 75001 (1st) +33 (0) 1 43 16 30 30; www.ritzparis.com

Chanel’s Ritz apartment offers a breathtaking panorama over Place Vendôme, so it’s easy to believe that the plaza inspired the famous shape of the stopper of the bottle of Chanel’s signature scent – Chanel No. 5. The plaza looks like a square at first glance, but its slanted corners give it the octagonal proportions adopted by the bottle itself. Chanel had an obsession with the number five that purportedly began when a fortune teller divined that it was her lucky number. No. 5 is precisely what she named the perfume that would make her famous – and make her millions.

Place Vendôme, 75001 (1st) It was against the background of a royal palace that was once home to King Louis X1V, in the Jardin du Palais-Royal, that Coco Chanel loved taking leisurely walks in the afternoons. Boasting beautiful avenues of lime trees, fragrant lavender, and a grand fountain, it’s little wonder that this magnificent spot was one of Chanel’s favourite haunts.

Place du Palais-Royal, 75001 (1st) For a further dose of the designer’s exemplary taste, head to the Opéra National de Paris and the Palais Garnier. Through her friendship with Sergei Diaghilev, Russian impresario and founder of the Ballet Russes, and her affair with ballet music composer Igor Stravinsky, Chanel had her hand in the designs of their legendary productions. She fashioned the costumes for productions of Le Train Bleu and Apollon Musagete, and it’s a tradition that still keeps today. Last year, Karl Lagerfeld, current creative

director for the Chanel fashion house, designed a series of costumes for the English National Ballet’s centenary celebrations of the Ballets Russes.

Learn more about the Russian ballet company in a special exhibition on until May 24 in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Place de l’Opéra, 75009 (9th) +33 (0) 1 71 25 24 23; www.operade paris.fr La Rotonde in Moulins is where Chanel debuted for a short stint as a singer performing the songs, Qui Qu’a Vu Coco and Ko Ko Ri Ko, earning her the moniker, Coco or ‘little pet’. Instead of travelling to Moulins, however, stay in Paris and visit La Rotonde in the Montparnasse quarter. During Chanel’s time, this Art Deco restaurant was frequented by friends Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau.

105 Boulevard Montparnasse, 75006 (14th) +33 (0) 1 43 26 48 26; www.rotondemontparnasse.com End your day a street over from the Ritz Paris where the Chanel salon at 31 rue Cambon is located. In this sumptuous boutique, you can indulge in the house’s famous bags, clothes and jewellery.

Know that above you is the apartment where Chanel kept her personal fashion collection and where she entertained guests. It’s decorated with ornate furniture inspired by oriental designs, walls lined with books, and lion statues cast in bronze that she accumulated because her star sign was a Leo. A visit here is the perfect way to end your springtime excursion to Paris.

31 rue Cambon, 75001 (1st) +33 (0) 1 42 86 26 00; www.chanel.com

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