Little Black Dress

Gabrielle Chanel was one of the few self-made women of history.

Born to an unmarried couple in France in 1883, and later abandoned by her father after her mother died, she rose from an orphanage to become one of the most sought-after women of the 20th century.

How did she accomplish this? Coco, like many brilliant success stories, had an obsessive dream to escape poverty. She first tried her luck as a shopkeeper and then as a singer and dancer (that's where she picked up her nickname, Coco). Later, she became the mistress of a wealthy gentleman named Etienne Balsan. Then came her big break: at age 27, she met her benefactor, Englishman Arthur Capel, who helped her set up her first milliner shop in Paris, in 1910. She went on to become hat-maker to the Paris elite.

"Once she opened her business and began to apply her taste and capacities to it, she would change into a woman entrepreneur forever. Nothing would stop her: not the lack of experience, not even the war that soon exploded. For the rest of her life she would work as both craftsman and businesswoman, implementing her own view of the art of dressing on her ever expanding clientele..." Famous Women

She invented the simple, elegant and practical Little Black Dress, worn by herself, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, and many, many others. This was a revolution a century ago, when all women wore layers of heavy clothing, corsets, mounds of ruffles and lace - even in the sweltering heat of summer.

Chanel faced a major obstacle after World War 1, when she had closed her shop briefly. In the following years she lost her top fashion designer place to male designers. Dior and other male fashion designers took over, but in 1953 she reopened with the need to dress women in comfortable clothing: "A dress isn't right unless the arm lifts easily...Elegance in clothes means freedom to move freely." Although she was over 70 years old at the time, and critics were extremely harsh, she pressed on and was still designing her latest clothing line at her death on January 10, 1971, at age 87.

And thanks to Coco Chanel, born into poverty and disgrace but with a drive to succeed, several hundred ladies showed up at the old Cosmo Club in Moncton last night, in little black dresses. And every single one of them looked amazing.