Chanel S.A. is the French high fashion house, founded by the couturière Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, which specializes in haute couture and luxury goods, such as ready-to-wear clothes, perfume, cosmetics, handbags, and accessories. In her youth, Gabrielle Chanel gained the sobriquet “Coco” in the course of her career as a café singer in France. As a designer, Coco Chanel catered to a woman’s taste for elegance in dress with suits, dresses, trousers, and costume jewelry characterized by simple design, meant to replace opulently designed garments and accessories; yet, the House of Chanel is most famous for the “little black dress” and the perfume No. 5 de Chanel. As a business enterprise, Chanel S.A. is a privately held company jointly owned by Alain Wertheimer and Gerard Wertheimer, grandsons of Pierre Wertheimer, who was an early business partner of Mademoiselle Chanel, in 1924. Commercially, the brands of the House of Chanel have been personified by fashion models and actresses, women such as Inès de la Fressange, Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Vanessa Paradis, Nicole Kidman, Anna Mouglalis, Audrey Tautou, Keira Knightley, and Marilyn Monroe.
