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Paris (AP) - It was only 100 meters to the Ritz.
For decades, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel lived in the hotel palace in the heart of Paris - all she had to do from her fashion house on Rue Cambon was to cross the street.
The famous fashion designer remained loyal to the meeting place of the beautiful and rich to the last, which included the singer Maria Callas and the writer Ernest Hemingway among its guests.
She died there 50 years ago, on January 10, 1971, in her suite.
France's fashion legend was 87 years old.
Chanel has remained a big name in the luxury and fashion world.
In the French capital, where the designer celebrated great success, there is for the first time an exhibition in the Palais Galliera fashion museum about the style icon who radically changed women's fashion.
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The hallmarks of the house she founded were the Chanel costume, a simple and elegant dress (“little black”) or the quilted leather handbag with a gold chain.
André Malraux, author and a famous minister of culture, was convinced that only three names would remain of 20th century France: Charles de Gaulle, Picasso and Chanel.
You have to see the fashion designer, in a filmed interview from 1959, standing, hat, pearl necklace and cigarette in hand.
“Can you tell us what fashion will look like this year?” Was a question to Mademoiselle Chanel, as she was approached at the time.
"No," replied the fashion queen.
"Why?"
"Because I do not know.
And if I did, I wouldn't say it. "
Her unparalleled career in the glittering world of fashion was not mapped out.
Gabrielle Chanel was born in 1883 in poor conditions in Saumur, western France.
From 1907 she sang in cafes, the nickname Coco is said to come from this time.
"Qui qu'a vu Coco sur le Trocadéro?"
(«Who saw Coco at the Trocadéro?») - that was the name of one of her songs.
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In 1909 Chanel started a hat atelier in Paris, followed by a hat boutique.
In 1915, during the First World War, she opened her first fashion store in the chic seaside resort of Biarritz on the Atlantic coast.
It made it into high society and revolutionized fashion.
The designer contrasted the corset that was prevalent at the time with casual, masculine cut jersey dresses.
Your hardest job?
"Allowing women to move around effortlessly," she once replied in an interview.
In 1921 she created “Parfum No.5”, the first perfume by a fashion designer, as reported by the House of Chanel.
How did the name come about?
There was a choice between different patterns, the choice fell on the fifth.
Ten years later, Chanel was in Hollywood to dress actresses from the United Artists studio.
In the 1930s, the Chanel company was a fashion empire, thousands of people worked there.
Where was the founder?
In good company.
For a long time she was in a relationship with the extremely rich Duke of Westminster.
"Fashion is fleeting, style remains" - that was one of her credo.
The Second World War resulted in a rupture.
Chanel closed her fashion house in 1939, but the perfume and fashion accessories store remained open.
Coco's domicile, the Ritz, was confiscated after the German troops marched into France in 1940 - as a residence for marshals, admirals and ministers from Nazi Germany.
According to the biographers, Chanel was a permanent guest at the time with the German diplomat Hans Günther von Dincklage.
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After the liberation of the capital in 1944, the designer was arrested as a suspected collaborator, but was quickly released.
She then lived for several years in Lausanne, Switzerland, before returning to the Seine metropolis in the mid-1950s and making a professional comeback.
Chanel's role during the “dark years”, as the period of occupation in France is described to this day, led to controversy.
The fashion queen as a Nazi agent?
In a biography of the US author Hal Vaughan 2011, it came in a particularly gloomy light.
During the "Operation Model Hat", Chanel was supposed to propose secret talks to the British war premier Winston Churchill in Madrid - but nothing came of it because Churchill did not come.
The House of Chanel wrote on the occasion of the debate that no one knew for sure what happened then: "There are many different versions that will undoubtedly remain a mystery forever."
Coco Chanel was already a good 70 years old when she launched her second career after a long break.
Her tweed costume was particularly successful in the USA.
After her death in 1971, there was a decisive turning point at Chanel in 1983 - with the engagement of Karl Lagerfeld as creative director.
The native of Hamburg once said that he saw how Coco Chanel criticized jeans and mini skirts at the end of her life.
"It was as if she had signed her death warrant."
Lagerfeld liked himself as a taboo breaker in the traditional house and converted it into a modern luxury brand.
From 1984 on, the ready-to-wear collections also included jeans.
According to his own admission, the pointed-tongued designer wanted the founder to turn around in the grave: "That at least shows that she is still alive!"
The Ritz on Place Vendôme closed for renovation in 2012.
The Chanel suite has also been renovated.
In 2018, the original furnishings of the luxury house came under the hammer on a grand scale.
Furniture from the "Suite by Mademoiselle C."
were auctioned more discreetly at the end of the auction.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210108-99-940629 / 2
Chanel fashion house to Coco Chanel
Exhibition Palais Galliera "Gabrielle Chanel. Manifeste de Mode" (French)