Chanel ready-to-wear collection
Chanel is a privately held French company founded in 1909 by Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, a former milliner. The Chanel ready-to-wear collection is showcased biannually for spring-summer and autumn-winter seasons during Paris Fashion Week to an audience of media, retailers, buyers, investors, and customers, under the auspices of the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, which is one of three trade associations affiliated with the Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode. The House of Chanel is known for liberating women from the corset in the early 20th century and designing fluid, jersey pieces, most notably the little black dress. Chanel died in 1971, Karl Lagerfeld has been the Creative Director since 1983.
Charlotte Bonaparte Gabrielli
An outspoken and undevious woman, the Italians referred to Princess Gabrielli as "a true Bonaparte". Her private correspondence was full of gossip on the Imperial court in Paris, and her own behaviour in society was sometimes a source of concern for the French Imperial family. Nevertheless, even after the fall of Napoleon, she always remained loyal to her uncle's memory, and had a particular affection for her paternal grandmother Madame Mère to whom she remained attached until her death at Palazzo Bonaparte-d'Aste, in the Roman Piazza Venezia, in 1836.