By BarbaraAnne

When is a blouse, not a blouse? When 20/20 hindsight recognizes that a rare, first design of an item represents a marker, which changed the history of ideas.

The nuns at the orphanage taught her to sew. “She could become a seamstress,” they thought. No one imagined a genius was looking at nuns’ habits and servants’ uniforms to develop a style that would bring fashion into the Modern Age.

In the summer of 1913, Chanel was in love with Arthur Cappel, a British industrialist who had financed her first millinery. It was such a success, she opened a second boutique in Deauville. As she looked around the French resort town, she hated that women were wearing corsets to the beach. They can’t move! So she invented sportswear. Her first collection featured simple, comfortable designs made out of jersey, a material that up until then, had only been used to make men’s underwear.

Think about it. She invented sportswear.

What would a perfectly preserved piece from this 1913 collection be worth at auction? Priceless. Because a blouse would not be a blouse, but a revolution.

Filed under: Style