FASHION WEEK-CAROLINA HERRERA

 BY YOLANDA PRENGA C'3

Carolina Herrera!

María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño was born on 8 January 1939, in Caracas, Venezuela, to Guillermo Pacanins Acevedo, an air force officer and former governor of Caracas, and María Cristina Niño Passios. Her socialite grandmother introduced her to the world of fashion, taking young Carolina to shows by Balenciaga and buying her outfits at Lanvin and Dior. She has said, "My eye was accustomed to seeing pretty things." Now you might wonder, "When did Carolina Herrera start her career?" She actually started her career in 1965 and she was only 26 years old working as a publicist for Emillio Pucci, a Florentine Marquis himself and a close family friend. She began working at Pucci's Caracas boutique, and moved to New York in 1980.Frequently associating with Mick and Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol, at Studio 54, she became well known for her dramatic style. She first appeared on the International Best Dressed List in 1972, then was elected to its Hall of Fame in 1980. In 1981, her friend Diana Vreeland, then Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, suggested that Carolina design a clothing line. She did so, having samples made in Caracas, and debuted her collection at Manhattan's Metropolitan Club to critical acclaim. A well known Park Avenue boutique, Martha's, agreed to showcase her clothing in their prominent windows. Upon this initial success, she returned to Caracas and raised capital to fund a more formal launch. Her first runway show in 1980 included future supermodel Iman.

Carolina Herrera presents her Ready-to-Wear Collection semi-annually at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. The company has been based in New York City since 1980, and in 1981 the brand received recognition from several key publications, including Women’s Wear Daily and Tatler, with particular early attention to her well designed
sleeves. A few of her most notable clients have included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who asked her to design the dress for her daughter Caroline's wedding, Diana, Duchess of Cadaval, who asked her to design the dress for her marriage with Prince Charles-Philippe of Orléans, Duke of Anjou, and actress Renée Zellweger. In the late 1980s, Spanish fragrance company Puig licensed the Carolina Herrera name to develop and market a line of perfumes. In 1995, the firm acquired the Carolina Herrera fashion business, retaining her as Creative Director. In 2008, they launched a ready-to-wear brand called CH Carolina Herrera; as of 2012, there were 18 Carolina Herrera and CH Carolina Herrera boutiques in the world, and her lines were carried in 280 stores in 104 countries. As of 2011, her daughters Carolina Jr. and Patricia Lansing participated in the creative direction and design. In February 2016, it was reported by WWD(Women's Wear Daily) that

the fragrance side of the business had more than 25,000 points of sale across the globe while the CH brand included 129 freestanding stores.

In 2015, the first advert for the brand was released, featuring models Elisabeth Erm and Joséphine Le Tutour.

In July 2016, Herrera announced the release of her new women's fragrance to be available for purchase in September, her biggest fragrance launch in 14 years. The scent is called 'Good Girl' and Karlie Kloss is the face of the fragrance.

In 2018, Herrera showed her last line for her eponymous brand and handed creative directorship of the brand over to Wes Gordon.

COCO CHANEL

BY ILIA BARMPARI C'3 

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. She was born in 1883 in Saumur,France and died in 1997 in Paris. She was born into an impoverished family. Her father abandoned her and her two sisters at an orphanage and her brothers at a local family after their mother died. Chanel never married and had no known children, but she looked after her elder sister's son. 

During her life, she had achieved in building a very successful brand called Chanel. Chanel was popular due to its sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. This replaced the "corseted silhouette" that had earlier been dominant with a style that was simpler, far less time-consuming to put on and remove , more comfortable, and less expensive, all without sacrificing elegance. As she said: "Fashion has become a joke. The designers have forgotten that there are women inside the dresses. Most women dress for men and want to be admired. But they must also be able to move, to get into a car without bursting their seams! Clothes must have a natural shape". Also, she is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. 

Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing , realizing her aesthetic design in jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Chanel No. 5 is her signature scent and has become an iconic product since the 1920s. Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel's little black dress. She took a color associated with mourning and showed just how chic it could be for evening wear. 

In the 1910s she opened her first store in Paris,Chanel Modes. With the outbreak of World War II her couture house closed (1939). When the war ended, Chanel moved to Switzerland and then returned to Paris in 1954 to revive her fashion house. She first received scathing reviews from critics, but her feminine and easy-fitting designs soon won over shoppers around the world. Fortunately she died peacefully at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. After her death, Chanel's couture house was led by a series of designers, with Karl Lagerfeld's tenure being the longest and most influential. Today her namesake company is held privately by the Wertheimer family and continues to thrive, believed to generate hundreds of millions in sales each year.