Coco Avant Chanel Film Review
By: Ayana Coleman-Dixon
In the movie Coco Avant Chanel (2009), the main protagonist in the film, Gabrielle is a performer at a cabaret with her sister. She is a seamstress on her time off and specializes in knowing how to fit clothes that provide movement. This is shown during earlier moments in the movie when she fixes her sister’s dress for a performance so she can dance freely in it. Once she meets a wealthy heir named Etienne Balsan at the cabaret, they quickly become lovers, and she stays with him at his home outside of Paris. This is when Gabrielle starts to work closely in the stables with the horses. In order to get more comfort, she began to wear her lover's clothes and altered them into her clothes with her skills. There were scenes where she would take his neckties and cut them to her liking to wear, or she would make a dress out of the plaid material she found from his wardrobe. 
During the film, however, she has a hard time trying to convince Etienne that her style is revolutionary. In turn, he tries to hide her from his friends for a long time when dating. It’s not until she intentionally bumps into them during a picnic that his friends get the chance to see her for the first time. The actress in the group, Emilienne d'Alençon, even calls Gabrielle a young man several times after their meeting in a conversation because Gabrielle was in trousers. This response was a viewpoint most women shared when seeing Gabrielle and her style because it was unheard of for a woman to leave the house in trousers at that time. Most women in France during WW1 had big over-the-top dresses with feather hats to match. Comfort was the last thing many wealthy women thought of, so there were drastic differences in the way Gabrielle dressed compared to her peers. She started making straw hats for the ladies in the circle, and then transitioned to dressing them for special parties hosted by Etienne. We see Gabrielle’s confidence begin to grow as she experiments with her style and the way she presents herself. 
Later in the movie, Gabrielle falls in love with Boy Capel and they have a little rendezvous by the beach. But unlike Etienne, Boy loves Gabrielle’s style and supports her craft by buying the necessary fabric she needs to make herself a dress during their stay by the shore. Instead of hiding her from everyone, Boy shows her off and doesn't seem to be bothered or embarrassed to be seen with her. This event gives Gabrielle a new sense of freedom and acceptance she didn’t feel before. It's what initially inspires her to finally leave Etienne and head to Paris to start her own business. Even with a proposal from Etienne and her heartbroken by Boy because of his arranged marriage, she accepts the fact that she most likely will never be married in her lifetime. 
In the end, you can see the drastic change in the way she feels when presenting her body of work at the end of the film for her first collection. Gabrielle looks proud of the work she has done and looks her most confident during the fashion show’s ending. Her passion for creating her own fashion house would lead her to become the fashion icon we know today; Coco Chanel.