"A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future."

Any guesses who said this?

Well, I’ll give you a fairly big clue… Her name starts with Coco and ends in Chanel.

Now unless you’ve been living under a rock, or, say, in Fez (in which case, I’d love to know, how’s the weather?) you’ve probably heard of or seen the flick Coco avant Chanel.

I was a bit late to the boat with this one but I finally got round to watching it and I must say, there were a lot of ‘oohs’, ‘ahhs’, ‘who’d a thunk it’s’ and ‘would ya look at that’s’ going on in my head. Mostly because Audrey Tatou is so ridiculously beautiful and I kept getting distracted by her perfectly coiffed hair and wondering how long and how many hairists it took to create it.

Audrey as Coco

But also, the film surprised me because I never knew Coco was such a visionary. It’s hard to believe it as I seem to aline her life and her personality to those posh fifth avenue toffs who can afford quilted jackets for all seasons.

So wrong.

Those who have seen the film or read the biography would know she lived in an orphanage and that’s about where the similarities to Annie end. She did not find a rich family to move in with, after which life was sweet in tweed. (Just quickly, what a knockout name for a dance number if her life were turned into an Annie-style musical!)

Nup, Coco had her fair share of knockbacks and hardships before she found her groove. There was the failed business, the many affairs and the self doubt of her worth as a designer as her visions were ahead of her time and she struggled to find a market.

And all this makes me appreciate her so much more. Her unstructured clothing, free from boning, plush with silk linings came to represent the Chanel woman of the time. They weren’t about following the crowd, doing and wearing what you thought you ought. They were out to challenge society’s idea of socially acceptable behaviour. They were about eschewing a woman’s confinements. Ditch the weighty skirts for comfortable pants! Hair too long? Cut it off! Show off those dainty ankles! The world is your oyster and you can go and paint the town red!

And lets not forget that she created on of the most successful and lasting perfumes of all time, Chanel No 5. Did you know, it’s estimated that worldwide, a bottle is sold every 55 seconds? Pretty impressive. Incicentally, the bottle, while it’s had a few minor design tweaks over the years, still remains my most favourite bottle of all. So simple. So classic. So decadently elegant.

So in an homage to my girl Coco, I think today you should life your life like her. Say what you think, stand up for what you believe in and whatever you do, don’t leave the house without a spritz of perfume.

Love, Spicy