13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

The book I read was CoCo Chanel by Lisa Chaney. I am familiar with the brand name CoCo Chanel growing up. It was this talked about brand amongst older people, not really my peers. Due to my knowledge on the surface, I never looked deeper into the entrepreneur herself.

In this book, I learned that she was able to overcome her obstacles and changed the perception of fashion. Beginning her life struggles as a child raised in an orphanage, she was able to accomplish her goals and aspirations for her business of a fashion designer.

I found it most surprising that with all of her success, she had a relationship/ties to the Nazi military officer. She used this connection to take advantage of Aryan property laws to remove her Jewish business partners Pierre and Paul Wertheimer.

Due to the Economic Depression in the 1930s, her company suffered and this strain resulted in the firing of her employees and the closing of her shops. In the mid-1940s, CoCo Chanel reopened her shops, and continued her advancements in the fashion indusry. Facing scrutiny due to her affiliation to a Nazi official, she presumed to leave Paris and lived the remainder of her life out in Switzerland, until her death in 1971.

I would characterize Coco Chanel as very outspoken, brave, innovative, and human. Her clothes were a fashion and political statement to the world for women empowerment. She broke barriers, and social norms of the superiority of men over women. She made mistakes/decisions in her life that had an affect on her life. With good, there also comes the bad. Although this reading was very informative, at times it lacked details about relationships she had and more about her life.

Questions:

1) How would you characterize your success over your lifetime?
2) Looking back on your decision to remove yoour business partners, do you believe you would have tried to go to diffferent lengths to remove your business partners to avoide public scrutiny?

The answer to these questions would help to understand the failings and possible solutions to fix the wrong the public saw in her decisions. I believe it would give a different outlook on how she views her success, and the feelings that were had during the time in which she was criticized publicly. It would also show if she valued her own decisions and her self-values over the opinions of others.

I believe her opinion of hard work was to do what is uncomfortable to achieve success. I believe she is a woman who stepped out of her comfort zone to achieve the success she did. Even when she had to close her shops, she could have succumber to her failure; however, she was persistent in her efforts of continuing her success.