Shoes and Limes: Let's just talk about Chanel.

So, today I feel like hell. My favorite part of winter is the inevitable flu. It's so weird because I eat healthy,take my vitamins,do my yoga yada yada and I am always the first one to get sick. Now I am feeling quite negative and cranky even though it is Thursday, my favorite day of the week and I am watching Vampire Diaries ( this show is like crack) . However, sick or healthy, fashion is like oxygen and talking about it never hurts. I don't have the brain capacity to be creative at the moment so let's just talk about Chanel. Chanel can be my advil. Chanel is the mothership as far as I am concerned. You cannot even say you love fashion without acknowleging Chanel. The woman created the little black dress and helped free women from the corset. Pretty much every woman has worn something Chanel-esque in their lives, whether it be a pair of pants (Coco Chanel started making it trendy and acceptable for women to wear pants) or the little black dress. Those inter-locking C's are iconic and completely recognisable all over the world. You just can't go wrong with Chanel and it adds a touch of class and mystique that quite frankly,you just can't find in other designers. Coco Chanel dressed for herself and encouraged women to dress for themselves and not for the pleasure of their men. With her cropped hair and simple, sometimes masculine way of dressing she had a big impact on the 1920s flapper fashion.She began her business making hats and expanded to sportswear and then couture. Her business survived both World Wars because she knew how to adapt and she knew how to survive, both in her personal and professional life.She suffered abandonment from her father and the death of her one true love Boy Capel and she survived. Through every devastating setback, she survived. She was the first fashion designer to use jersey. Back in the day, jersey was considered to be a worker's fabric. Only the poor wore jersey. Chanel knew that women needed to be able to move and work during times of war so she started making clothes in her distinct, impeccably stylish and simple way. She also complied with the fabric rations. Naturally, during war time, there wasn't enough money for fabric, or even enough fabric. Coco Chanel is an inspiration to many, including me. I admire her strength, her incredible amount of savvy and how adaptable she was. She created a legend for herself and there is an intrigue surrounding anything Chanel that is unexplicable, unique and delicious. Oh, and February is little black dress month (allegedly, I saw it on google). Black for the month of love? That's poetic for anybody feeling particulary cynical. And also for anyone less cynical who just wants to look elegant and classy. You cannot go wrong. Actually that's a lie, I've seen black dresses that look like hell. As long as the dress doesn't look like it should be worn to an omish funeral than it is probably fine.

Chanel Number Five is a bit too mature for me but it has to be appreciated. It's the first perfume by a fashion designer and one of the first to use aldehydes.Personally, I use Chanel Cristalle eau Verte. I really do love Chanel.

The Classic Chanel 2.55 bag. It was released in February 1955, hence the name, and was created because of Mademoiselle Chanel's need to be able to be hands free to greet people and drink champagne at parties. The signature quilted leather has been said to be inspired by quilted pillows in her apartment in Paris and the jackets of jockeys. I have an intense love for these bags. Every Chanel bag (pretty much) I love but there is something about the 2.55. The black bag with the interlocking "C" twist turn lock is the Classic Flap 2.55. It is different than the bag that Coco Chanel designed. The original bags had a square twist-turn lock called a "mademoiselle lock" as Chanel never married and metal chains, as opposed to the metal with interwoven leather chains that the classic flap bag( black bag above) has.The red bag is a Chanel 2.55 reissue. It was re-released by Karl Lagerfeld and it is commemorative of the original 2.55 that Coco Chanel designed.