Изучаем английский

Этот свой утренний пост я посвящаю шикарной и искушённой женщине, которая создала самое себя и закрепила этот памятник искусства — в том числе искусства мысли — в веках. Я посвящаю этот полный радости и блеска пост Коко Шанель. Этот испещрённый словами мудрости пост сам весь из афоризмов мадемуазель Коко.

Итак, у нас домашнее чтение! И начнём мы с самой известной фразы гранд-дамы…

I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

The best colour in the whole world is the one that looks good on you.

In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.

Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

Passion goes, boredom remains.

There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.

Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.

I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.

Шанель круиз 2012 со сложнопереводимым названием, основанным на игре слов «The Tale Of A Fairy» (фильм К. Лагерфельда)

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

You live but once; you might as well be amusing.

If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.

Only those with no memory insist on their originality.

Elegance is refusal.

Adornment, what a science! Beauty, what a weapon! Modesty, what elegance!

I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little — if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.

My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.

I wanted to give a woman comfortable clothes that would flow with her body. A woman is closest to being naked when she is well-dressed.

Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.

I don’t do fashion, I AM fashion.

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.

Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.

Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.

Fashion changes, but style endures.

A beautiful dress may look beautiful on a hanger, but that means nothing. It must be seen on the shoulders, with the movement of the arms, the legs, and the waist.

As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!

Показ Chanel прет-а-порте осень/зима 2011-2012.

It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid, but I don’t think I’m a run-of-the-mill person. I’ve been in business without being a businesswoman, I’ve loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men I’ve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. I’ve done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice.

A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous!

A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.

A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.

Coquetry, it’s a triumph of the spirit over the senses.

There is nothing more comfortable than a caterpillar and nothing more made for love than a butterfly. We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly. Fashion is at once a caterpillar and a butterfly, caterpillar by day, butterfly by night.

Fashion has two purposes: comfort and love. Beauty comes when fashion succeeds.

Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.

A woman can be over dressed but never over elegant.

Everyone marries the Duke of Westminster. There are a lot of duchesses, but only one Coco Chanel.

I imposed black; it still going strong today, for black wipes out everything else around.

Fashion is made to become unfashionable.

Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.

Шанель Париж-Москва 2008 (съёмка 1913, 1923).

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

I don’t know why women want any of the things men have when one of the things that women have is men.

In 1919 I woke up famous. I’d never guessed it. If I’d known I was famous, I’d have stolen away and wept. I was stupid. I was supposed to be intelligent. I was sensitive and very dumb.

Шанель Париж-Москва 2009.

Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.

“Where should one use perfume?” a young woman asked. “Wherever one wants to be kissed,” Coco replied.

PS
Забавно: настоящее имя Шанель — Габриэлла (или — Габриэль) Бонёр Шанель. Так вот это второе её имя — Bonheur — с французского переводится как счастье.

PS
Ещё забавное. Составляя пост, я и не ожидал, что знаю столько фраз Коко Шанель. Однако! Иногда вот думаем, что думаем своими мыслями, а оказывается, за нас их уже продумали и элегантно ввели инъекцию в сознание.