How to See Paris in the Footsteps of Coco Chanel

"Last spring, I traveled to France on the trail of the young Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. I wanted to understand how an orphan from the French provinces became an icon of 20th-century fashion-and a paradigm of the self-made woman. Born in an age of corsets and bustles, she offered women the liberating ease of little black dresses with dropped waists and striped sailors' shirts. She never married, but instead made her own fortune."

"When she was in her sixties Chanel was, if not exactly canceled, at least so seriously tarnished by her behavior during World War II-an affair with a Nazi officer, attempts to profit from Vichy's anti-Semitic laws, a harebrained scheme to influence Churchill-that she felt compelled to spend the next decade cooling her heels in Swiss hotels. Yet in 1954-infuriated by the success of Christian Dior's ultra-feminine "New Look"-she returned to Paris, reopened her couture house."

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel rose from a provincial orphan to an icon of 20th-century fashion and a model of the self-made woman. She introduced liberating garments such as little black dresses with dropped waists and striped sailors' shirts, and built financial independence while supporting artists and writers. Her reputation was severely tarnished by wartime behavior, including an affair with a Nazi officer and attempts to profit from Vichy's anti-Semitic laws, leading to a decade in Swiss hotels. In 1954 she reopened her couture house, rebuked Dior's 'New Look,' and in her seventies reasserted her vision. The Castille Paris hotel sits beside Chanel's Rue Cambon boutique; the atelier's panes are now frosted.

Read at Travel + Leisure