Chanel is headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, in the Île-de-France region, just outside of Paris. The company’s products are sold worldwide; it generates 40% of sales in Europe, 33% in the Asia/Pacific region, and 20% in the Americas. Chanel sells its luxury goods worldwide through more than around 190 boutiques.

Gabrielle Chanel was born in Saumur, France on August 19, 1883, under the sign of the lion. “Coco,” as she had come to be called, opens a hat boutique at 21 rue Cambon under the name Chanel Modes. Her hats were worn by well-known French actresses of the era, and helped build her reputation.

Gabrielle Chanel opens her first boutique in Deauville. From 1913, she begins to sell a line of sportswear made of jersey, a material that was previously used to make men’s underwear. This approach revolutionized fashion and women’s relationships with their bodies. It was an instant success.

Encouraged by her success, Mademoiselle Chanel opens her first Couture House in Biarritz, France. She employs 300 workers there and designs her first Haute Couture collection.

Gabrielle Chanel purchases the building at 31 rue Cambon and sets up her Couture House there. The “31” building housed a boutique, salons and workshops; a layout that remains the same today.

Launch of the first CHANEL perfume: N°5. This “women’s perfume which smells like a woman,” revolutionary due to its composition, name and presentation, was born out of Gabrielle Chanel’s partnership with perfumer Ernest Beaux.

The “Société des Parfums CHANEL” company is created in 1924 to produce and sell perfumes and cosmetics. Ernest Beaux then became the House’s first in-house perfume designer. The first collections of powders and lipsticks were created in the same year.