“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” These are the words of, which changed women' lives forever, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel.

Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in 1883 – she earned her nickname Coco while working as a singer at Moulin Rouge-style cafes. Coco, as she will forever be known, learned how to sew after being sent to a convent by her father, when she was 11, following the death of her mother.

Hers is true rags to riches tale. A woman who defied odds and social conventions and built not only a brand but also a legend. She famously freed women from the “corseted silhouette” which was a style standard in the post-World War I era. Expanding from fashion her aesthetic extended to costume jewellery, quilted bags and, of course, perfume with the still ever popular Chanel No. 5.

At the height of her career in the 1920s she was running four business enterprises. It’s no surprise a painting of the late French fashion designer attributed to Andy Warhol recently sold for US$247,000 on August 8 by Stevens Auction Company in Aberdeen, Mississippi. She is an icon that never left us.

A forward thinking entrepreneur and feminist, Coco, who passed away aged 87 in 1971 at the Hotel Ritz in Paris – her home for more than 30 years – was also a famous for her outspoken speeches as her design.