Mentoring a New Generation

One of the unexpected pleasures of Chanel's later years was her role as mentor to young designers and models. Despite her reputation for harshness, she could be generous with knowledge to those she deemed worthy. This mentoring took various forms—from technical instruction in the workshops to broader lessons about style and business—and influenced a generation of fashion professionals.

Pierre Cardin, before establishing his own house, worked briefly for Chanel. He later credited her with teaching him the importance of construction and fit. Her method of fitting directly on models, adjusting with pins and scissors until proportions were perfect, became legendary. Young assistants watched in awe as she transformed garments through minute adjustments that seemed minor but proved transformative.

Her relationship with models was particularly interesting. Unlike designers who treated models as mere hangers, Chanel engaged with them as collaborators. She preferred models who moved naturally rather than with studied poses. Marie-Hélène Arnaud, one of her favorite models in the 1950s, recalled Chanel teaching her not just how to walk but how to inhabit clothes with confidence.

The house of Chanel became an informal finishing school for fashion professionals. Seamstresses learned not just technical skills but an aesthetic philosophy. The emphasis on interior construction—that a garment should be as beautiful inside as outside—was revolutionary in ready-to-wear production. This attention to hidden details, passed from Chanel to her workers, established standards that influenced the entire industry.

Young designers who visited rue Cambon, even those from competing houses, often found Chanel willing to share insights. She could be cutting about their work but also constructive. Her critiques, while harsh, contained valuable lessons about proportion, movement, and the relationship between clothes and body. Many successful designers of the 1960s and 1970s traced influential moments to encounters with Chanel.