ENDURING STYLE ICON
Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, Coco had a difficult early life. She was born into poverty in France and was raised in a girls’ home at a convent, where she was taught to sew. As a young woman, she made her way briefly into the entertainment industry as a cabaret singer, where she picked up the nickname of “Coco.” In 1910, she was funded to open her own hat shop, before moving on to women’s clothing and, eventually, perfume—the first fashion designer to do so. She felt that in order for clothes to be luxurious, they ultimately needed to be comfortable. This included her large role in bringing pants into women’s fashion. Coco’s designs were loved by Hollywood royalty, including actresses such as Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly. Coco Chanel quickly earned a position at the height of contemporary fashion, and her place as a revered fashion icon holds firm to this day.
With the Great Depression, followed by World War II, even wealthy people’s ability to buy high fashion was in decline. Coco closed the Chanel stores in 1939. However, in 1954, at the age of 70, she made a grand return to the world of clothing—with the introduction of bell-bottom pants. Coco opened her first fashion store over 100 years ago, yet her name continues to be a byword for iconic style. Her designs and philosophy of fashion have greatly influenced generations of designers that followed. Her “CC” logo is now one of the world’s most recognizable trademarks.
Coco’s fashion house remains as popular today as it was during her lifetime. This boutique window, in Milan, Italy, displays some of the 2012 Chanel designs.
MA RAINEY MOTHER OF THE BLUES
FULL NAME: Gertrude Malissa “Ma” Nix Pridgett Rainey
BORN: C. APRIL 26, 1886, COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, U.S.A.
DIED: DECEMBER 22, 1939, ROME, GEORGIA, U.S.A.
NATIONALITY: AMERICAN
MADAM GERTRUDE MA RAINEY
Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett began performing when she was around 13, first through her Baptist church and later on tour. In 1904, Gertrude married William Rainey, and the pair began touring as “Ma” and “Pa” Rainey soon after. By 1905, Ma had heard blues music and began to work it into her performance list. She quickly developed her own “raw” singing style, using her booming voice and unusual phrasing. She became the first popular entertainer to perform the blues on stage and came to be known as the “Mother of the Blues.”
FROM GERTRUDE TO MA
She would go on to perform live music for over 30 years, including during the blues heyday of the 1920s. Her stage presence was captivating. Ma became the first great female blues vocalist and brought blues to a wider audience. After the Raineys separated in 1916, Ma began touring with her own band, Madam Gertrude Ma Rainey and her Georgia Smart Sets.
“They don’t understand that’s [the blues is] life’s way of talking. You don’t sing to feel better. You sing ‘cause that’s a way of understanding life.”
MA RAINEY
A collection of her songs from 1924 to 1928, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” album remains a classic of the blues genre.
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FIRST POPULAR ENTERTAINER TO PERFORM THE BLUES ON STAGE |
BLUESY BUSINESSWOMAN
In 1923, Ma made her first record for Paramount Records. This was to be part of the first wave of blues records. (Mamie Smith was the first black woman to record an album, in 1920.) Ma’s songs dealt with love and work, and the everyday lives of Southern African-Americans. Ma worked with many famous musicians and singers of her day, including Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins. Ma was known as a savvy businesswoman, and she also owned two entertainment venues: the Lyric Theater and the Airdome.
Not only was Ma Rainey important to the evolution of blues music, her work inspired a wide range of musicians, as well as poets and novelists, such as Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, and Alice Walker. Ma has been inducted into both the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame (in 1983) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in 1990) for her tremendous contributions to music of all genres.
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MOTHER OF AMERICAN MODERNISM
FULL NAME: Georgia Totto O’Keeffe
BORN: NOVEMBER 15, 1887, SUN PRAIRIE, WISCONSIN, U.S.A.
DIED: MARCH 6, 1986, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A.
NATIONALITY: AMERICAN
Cow skulls and colorful flowers featured heavily in Georgia’s work.
MODERN AMERICA ON CANVAS
Even if you don’t know the name “Georgia O’Keeffe,” chances are you’ve seen her work. Georgia is one of the most well-known American painters of all time. Her paintings are bold and brightly colored and grace the walls of museums around the world, as well as greeting cards and posters. She painted huge canvases with iconic images of America, including New York skyscrapers, Southwestern deserts and cow skulls, and huge flowers and clouds.
FROM SKYSCRAPERS TO COW SKULLS
Georgia came from a family of Wisconsin dairy farmers, and she was the second of seven children. As a young girl, she was taught watercolor painting. By age ten, she knew she would be an artist. She went on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago (which now houses the majority of her works) and the Art Students League in New York. There, she was taught revolutionary ideas of composition. The charcoal drawings she did as a result made Georgia one of the very first American artists to produce abstract art—this was her first exhibited work, in 1916. The art dealer and photographer responsible for this exhibition was Alfred Stieglitz. Alfred and Georgia would eventually marry, and Alfred would spend the rest of his life as Georgia’s supporter. By the 1920s, Georgia was becoming famous for her now-trademark themes of skyscrapers and flowers. Soon after, she began traveling to New Mexico. The desert landscapes made their way into her work, as a beautiful contrast to her skyscraper pieces. Her desire for new ideas led her to travel internationally, and she produced incredible paintings of the mountains of Peru and Japan.
Georgia painted the deserts and rock formations of New Mexico.
A U.S. postage stamp from 2013 commemorating Georgia’s work
FAMOUS PAINTER AND FEMINIST ICON
Later in life, Georgia suffered from an eye condition called macular degeneration that caused her to lose her sight. But