FIRST GUEST: Best-selling author C.W. Gortner tells us about his latest book Mademoiselle Chanel
Today we’re talking about one of the biggest fashion icons and female role-models of the 20th century: Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.
After tirelessly researching the life and influence of this fashion legend, best-selling author C.W. Gortner brings the life of this powerful woman to novel form in his latest book Mademoiselle Chanel.
Mademoiselle Chanel tells the story of fashion icon Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and how her legacy continues to empower women
Not only did Chanel lead a fascinating life, but she lived through fascinating times.
“Coco’s life is really remarkable,” Gortner says. “She’s born towards the turn of the century, she lives through World War I, she lives through World War II, she lives through immense changes not only on a global level, but on a societal level where women… become more independent.”
No one embodies independence more than Chanel. Launching her own successful business in the early 1900’s showed all women that they could be more than just someone’s spouse if that’s what they wanted.
During an era when women were expected to marry and have kids, “Coco” turned heads with her hard-working ambition. “I think Chanel really believed that there was no need to be what was expected,” Gortner explains.
Her sisters, aunts, and friends may have expected her to marry, but Chanel recognized that she had more options to choose from, being quoted as saying “I want to be loved, but every time I have to choose between a man and my dresses, I choose my dresses.”
When it came to fashion in the early 1900’s, corsets and big, frilly hats were all the rage. Chanel, however, had a different style in mind: the simpler, the better.
Fashion icon Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel looks on in Paris (Photo: Getty Images)
She even used fabrics that were associated with men’s clothing, such as jersey, which proved very flexible for creating mix-and-match separates.
“She was bucking a trend,” Gortner says. “Women until that point had one-of-a-kind dresses made if they were of a certain class.”
The goal of this simple style was to make people notice the women wearing the clothes, not the clothes themselves, and that is the essence of Chanel.
“Everything that we know about fashion today,” Gortner says, “we owe a lot to Chanel.”
Learn more at cwgortner.com.
SECOND GUEST: Sean Foy, author of The Burst! Workout: The Power of 10-Minute Interval Training
The number one reason why people avoid working out is not having enough time.
But we all can find ten minutes here and there. And Sean Foy says that’s all the time we need to get a good workout in.
Sean breaks down the 10-minute interval process for us, detailed in his new book The Burst! Workout, which also includes three nutrition strategies and plenty of simple yet effective exercises that can be done anywhere.
Learn more and take the 10-day challenge at burstworkout.com.
Weekend Journal airs Sunday mornings at 6:30 on US99.5 and 6:00 on US99.5 HD2 The Wolf.
Listen to this week’s full episode below.
