Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and business woman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with liberating women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularizing a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing, realizing her design aesthetic in jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product. She is the only fashion designer listed on "Time" magazine's . Chanel herself designed her famed interlocked-CC monogram, which has been in use since the 1920s.
Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier
Coffin-Chevallier would not live to see it completed. She had experienced bouts of ill health since the 1850s, and died of lung disease at the age of forty-eight in Paris on 9 February 1874. Even in the last days of her life she is known to have spent time ensuring new items of the museum collection were sent to Teesdale.