God knows I wanted love.
But the moment I had to choose
between the man I loved and my dresses,
I chose the dresses.

- Coco Chanel  

The Designer

COCO CHANEL She was shrewd[u1] , chic[u2]  and on the cutting edge[u3] . The clothes she created changed the way women looked and how they looked at themselves

By INGRID SISCHY

Coco Chanel wasn't just ahead of her time. She was ahead of herself. If one looks at the work of contemporary fashion designers as different from one another as Tom Ford, Helmut Lang, Miuccia Prada[u4] , Jil Sander and Donatella Versace, one sees that many of their strategies echo what Chanel once did. The way, 75 years ago, she mixed up the vocabulary of male and female clothes and created fashion that offered the wearer a feeling of hidden luxury rather than ostentation[u5]  are just two examples of how her taste and sense of style overlap[u6]  with today's fashion. 

Chanel passed away at the Ritz Hotel. She was still working in 1971 when she died at the age of 87. (Chanel在 Ritz Hotel 有個辦公室) 。

From the Jun. 8, 1998 issue of TIME magazine