How camellia became Chanel's favorite flower

The story of one of the most recognizable emblems of the Chanel house - a beautiful camellia flower.

Photo: pinterest.com
It is said that for the first time Coco Chanel became interested in this flower after reading Alexander Dumas novel "The Lady with Camellias", in which the main character of the novel supplemented her image with white camellia. Later, camellia acquired for her more tragic significance - this was the first flower that Chanel received as a gift from her lover, Arthur Kapel, who died in a car accident. Despite the fact that these relations, which lasted nine years, were complicated, Chanel sincerely grieved and, erecting a monument by the road, often visited him, leaving a bouquet of camellias.

Photo: Chanel
Camellia is a rose without thorns, the emblem of beautiful, but heartless women, according to the ancient Greek myth, which impressed the proud Coco very much. In addition, this flower has no aroma, which meant that it would not mix with her most famous perfume, Chanel No. 5.

Photo: Chanel
Chanel's love of camellias manifested itself not only in fashion, but also in the decoration of the house: painting, embroidery, screens - again and again she surrounded herself with images of her favorite flower.
In the 1920s, Chanel began to actively include camellia in her collections: this beautiful flower could be seen on a small black dress, on engraved buttons, on embroidered blouses and shoes.

Photo: Chanel
Maison Lemarié's Chanel house still creates handmade camellias.

Photo: Maison Lemarié
In the process, each petal is cut out in the shape of a heart, curled and attached to the rest - on average it takes at least 40 minutes to create one flower.

Photo: Chanel
In the jewelry collection of the Chanel house, camellia has its own line - Camelia.
In 2012, Chanel launched an interesting project, Inside Chanel, which describes how and on what the philosophy of this fashion house is built.
The two-minute video tells in detail how Chanel's love for camellia began and how she turned it into a fashionable emblem of her empire. The most unusual thing in this video is that the narration is conducted in the first person, that is, from the camellia itself.