Chanel on screen

No other name conjures up French luxury more than Coco Chanel. But it's not the haute couture that takes the spotlight in Anne Fontaine's new film "Coco Before Chanel," which opens Thursday in Germany.

Rather, it's a film about the person Gabrielle Chanel - later known as Coco - portrayed by French actress Audrey Tautou.

"I always wanted to make a film about love and not about fashion or clothes," Audrey Tautou said in an interview with AP. "It was about bringing out Chanel's incredible personality, her inspiration."

Tautou, who made a name for herself internationally for her role as the title figure in "Amelie," said she'd received many offers to play Coco Chanel, but, until now, the storylines didn't interest her.

"I was hopeful that at some point an offer would come along where not just the figure was shown, but the whole surrounding picture," she said, adding that Fontaine's film was the opportunity she had been waiting for.

Humble beginnings

Gabrielle Chanel was born on Aug. 19, 1883 in the small French village of Saumur on the Loire River. Her father was a street vendor and her mother died of tuberculosis when Gabrielle was 12. The young girl spent the next seven years in an orphanage, where strict discipline took the place of a parent's love.

In addition to living through the hardships of life in orphanage, Gabrielle also learned to sew. When she wasn't in class, she spent most of her time in the workshop, embroidering or making clothes.

"As a student at the monastery I didn't own any clothes except what I'd sewn for myself," Chanel once said in an interview with Deutsche Welle. "And that's where the success came from. Everyone turned their head when I walked by. And I thought: If the people like my designs, then I can make and sell them."

In 1910, at the age of 27, Gabrielle opened her first boutique, called Chanel Modes, on Paris' Rue Cambon. By the morning after the grand opening, everything had been sold.

Three years later, she opened a hat and accessory shop in Deauville, a favorite weekend vacation destination for Paris' rich and beautiful.

Strong but feminine

Chanel's designs were revolutionary. She abandoned the boning and corsets that had impeded women for centuries.

"Coco Chanel encouraged women to emphasize their personalities and not just their feminine form - breasts and hips," Tautou, who has replaced Australian actress Nicole Kidman as the face of the fragrance Chanel Nr. 5, told AP.

The skirts were cut wide and often made out of jersey - a material usually reserved for men's clothing. Straight lines, comfort and natural elegance become Coco Chanel's trademarks. As for her own look, she cut her hair short and dressed in an avant-garde - but elegant - style.

"I'm against pants," Chanel once told Deutsche Welle. "They can be worn in the country. But I don't know why I would want to walk through the city like a man. (…) Women are strong when they are feminine."

Dress your personality

By the 1930s, Chanel's success in the fashion world was firmly established. She had befriended numerous important artists, including Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky - with whom she is rumored to have had an affair.

When World War II hit Europe, the designer fled into the Pyrenees Mountains. After the war, she was regarded as a collaborator and lived in exile in Switzerland until 1954. Upon returning to France, however, Chanel was able to rejuvenate her career.

After her death in 1971, the Chanel label wasn't able to maintain the prestige and cutting-edge image its founder had established.

It wasn't until Karl Lagerfeld joined the label in 1983 that its image got a makeover. He became the first German to put a haute couture collection on the runway for Chanel. In 1990, Lagerfeld chose Claudia Schiffer as the new face of Chanel. The German model became the fashion guru's muse and one of the best known faces in the world.

"You're well dressed when it matches your personality and the life you lead," Lagerfeld once told Deutsche Welle. "That's it. Clothing is just a matter of instinct. It's easier to cross the street in inconspicuous clothes than to have the courage to stand out from the crowd."

"Coco Before Chanel" has already been released in many European countries and begins in select US theaters on Sept. 25.

Author: Antje Allroggen / Kate Bowen

Editor: Sean Sinico