Coco Chanel discovered Scotland alongside the Duke of Westminster. She brought back tweed, her emblematic material. 1954: volumes and Christian Dior’s New Look were the talk of the times. Chanel was pursuing her quest for modernity when she designed a style that was against the current. With minimalist silhouettes, her clothes were less constraining. The Mademoiselle developed astute and never-before-seen couture techniques. In that same year, besides the suit, it was the tweed jacket that caused a sensation. Beneath the façade of the old lady on the rue Cambon, Chanel demonstrated all the impertinence of a rebellious elegance. The jacket fell like a second skin, once more composed in tweed. A straight cut, four real flanked pockets on each side giving structure in the absence of a collar, and voilà: you’ve got a timeless piece.
The Chanel jacket is first and foremost a men’s jacket that became a typically female one. Inspired by the jackets worn as uniforms by Austrian lift attendants, Gabrielle Chanel wanted it to be practical and comfortable, like something you’d slip on in the countryside. In the eyelet, a chain seals the deal, leaving women with a greater ease of movement. A universal piece if there ever was one, Chanel’s little black jacket exudes all the sensuality of a male/female encounter. By imposing a piece with such flagrant refinement on the society of the era, this camellia-loving woman’s style became the sign of an elegance where modernity is designed to redefine tradition.
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